SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union —The Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed the detection of the Omicron variant in Ilocos Norte province, according to Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc in a Facebook post on Sunday.
“The DOH just confirmed our longtime suspicions that the Omicron variant is present in Ilocos Norte,” said Manotoc.
In the past two weeks, the number of new COVID-19 cases logged by the provincial government jumped to over 7,830 percent, from just 13 cases on December 30 last year to 1,031 on Saturday, January 15, data from the provincial government showed.
The governor did not disclose any more details about the case.
Manotoc said he saw no reason to “panic and overreact” as most residents in Ilocos Norte province had already been vaccinated.
“Omicron is milder, and we now know much more about the virus, especially the safety measures that work,” the governor said.
Manotoc said that he will not be imposing a “wide-scale, hard lockdown like before.”
Ilocos Norte is under COVID-19 Alert Level 3 until January 31.
“We will dance with, and live with, the virus and we look forward to it becoming an endemic as many scientists say. Life shall go on,” added Manotoc.