PH detects local transmission of Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health has detected a local transmission of the highly transmissible  Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Tuesday.

Omicron is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

READ: Omicron ‘most evolved variant of SARS-CoV-2‘ — PH Genome Center exec

“Bagamat nai-report po natin ang detection ng Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1 noong nakaraang linggo, narito po tayo upang sabihin na mayroon na pong local transmission nitong subvariant ng Omicron na ito sa ating bansa,” Vergeire said in a forum.

(While we have reported the detection of the Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1 last week, we are here to tell you that there is already a local transmission of this subvariant of Omicron in the country.)

“Nangangahulugan po na ang mga kaso na na-detect natin ay wala na pong kaugnayan sa mga kaso na nagmula sa labas ng bansa ngunit makikita pa rin po ang linkages ng mga detected cases,” she explained.

(It means that the cases we have detected are not connected with the cases that came from outside the country but we can still see the linkages of the detected cases.)

Vergeire however stressed that there is no community transmission yet.

To date, there are 17 BA.2.12.1 cases in the country — 16 are local cases while one is from a returning overseas Filipino currently residing in Western Visayas.

The BA.2.12.1 is estimated to be around 20 percent more infectious than the BA.2.

READ: New Omicron subvariant BA.2.12 begins to show in South Korea

As of May 16, the Philippines has a total of 3,688,292 COVID-19 cases. Of the figure, 2,688 are active cases.

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