Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega (PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Omicron may become the dominant COVID-19 variant in the country—overtaking Delta—in three to four weeks, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary and country’s treatment czar Leopoldo Vega said Monday.
Vega said that currently, the Delta variant remains the dominant variant present in the country.
“I think we still have the Delta around, but since we reported our first Omicron case way back December 5 and there has been a continuously increase in the sequencing of this Omicron virus, it looks like we will presume that the Omicron is here, but it’s still not dominant,” Vega said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.
“I think in about three to four weeks, as predicted, the Omicron will be dominant in terms of 50% or 90% of the cases, overtaking the Delta virus, but the Delta virus definitely still around with us,” he added.
In the same interview, Vega said that it seems that the “Omicron wave” is upon the Philippines.
Despite this, Vega said that the hospital utilization rate in the country remains low.
“We are still able to accommodate the number of admissions for mild and moderate COVID-19 [cases] and it’s still in the low-risk position,” Vega said.
On Sunday, the Philippines recorded 4,600 new COVID-19 cases — the most since Oct. 24, 2021.
The new infections raised the number of active COVID-19 cases to 21,418, or almost back to the number of cases the country had in November of last year before the number of daily cases dipped below 1,000 during the holidays.