MANILA, Philippines — There is no reason yet to tighten protocols against COVID-19 despite the presence of a new sublineage of Omicron, BA.2.12.1, in the Philippines, an infectious disease expert said on Monday.
Dr. Edsel Salvaña said there is no indication yet that COVID-19 cases are increasing that would threaten the country’s health care system.
“Sa ngayon, ang nakikita naman natin, hindi umaakyat ‘yung cases, okay naman ‘yung health care capacity, I don’t think kailangan maghigpit,” he said in a public briefing.
(For now, we are seeing no increase in the number of cases and our health care capacity is still okay. I don’t think we need to tighten restrictions.)
He also said that the government has sufficient metrics in determining whether an alert level over an area should be escalated.
“Sa ngayon, minimal o low risk naman yung health care utilization rate natin so I don’t think there’s any reason na maghihigpit tayo,” Salvaña added.
(For now, our healthcare utilization rate is minimal or low so I don’t think there’s any reason for us to tighten protocols.)
What is important, he said, is that the public continue to comply with public health standards such as wearing masks, getting vaccinated and getting booster shots, social distancing, and hand hygiene.
He also said that even though there are fears of another surge of infections due to the superspreader events that were held during the campaign season as well as the election day itself, it is unlikely that the Philippines will go back to having lockdowns.
“The numbers remain manageable and even if the numbers increase, dahil sa antas ng pagbabakuna, ‘yung number of people developing severe and critical disease remain low. Hindi na talaga tayo babalik doon sa nagla-lockdown tayo,” he said.
(Because of our vaccination rate, we will no longer be going back to lockdowns.)
He said that even though the new variants will reach those unvaccinated, there are medicines already for COVID-19 patients.
The new subvariant of Omicron has so far been detected in 11 foreigners and three Filipinos.