Palace assures close monitoring of two Omicron variant cases

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Wednesday assured the public that it is closely monitoring the developments on the two cases of Omicron COVID-19 variant in the country.

The Department of Health recently announced the detection of the Omicron variant in two travelers from Japan and Nigeria.

“This early detection forms part of our Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate (PDITR) strategy that has been in place all throughout the pandemic,” acting presidential spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said in a statement.

“We assure our people that we will closely monitor developments of the two cases in light of existing protocols, as we continue to remind the public not to let their guard down, to religiously observe minimum public health standards, and call upon all those unvaccinated to get their jabs as soon as possible,” he added.

The Palace commended the Department of Health, the University of the Philippines – Philippine Genome Center, and the University of the Philippines – National Institutes of Health “for their early detection of these two cases.”

“At present, active case finding and contact tracing are being conducted to determine the health condition of co-passengers of the said confirmed cases,” Nograles shared.

Earlier, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said during Go Negosyo’s public-private dialogue that Metro Manila’s seven-day average of COVID-19 cases may balloon to almost 800 by the end of January, supposing the Omicron enters today.

/MUF