DOH advises passengers of 2 flights with Omicron cases to check for symptoms

Facade of the DOH main office in Manila. INQUIRER.net file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) advised on Wednesday all passengers on two airlines, which brought a Filipino and a Nigerian on separate flights to the country and who were later found positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, to check themselves for symptoms of COVID-19.

The 48-year-old returning overseas Filipino (ROF) had a cough and a cold when he flew back from Japan on Dec. 1 on Philippine Airlines flight PR 0427. The 37-year-old Nigerian arrived from his home country on Nov. 30 aboard Oman Air flight WY 843.

The Filipino and the Nigerian are the Philippines’ first two detected cases of the Omicron variant.

The DOH said the Omicron variant was detected on Dec. 14 in the samples from the two men that were included in the 48 that were sequenced — 21 ROFs, 26 locals, and the lone foreigner.

The DOH did not say how many people were on each of the planes.

It urged travelers who were on the same flights with the two men to call the DOH or their respective local governments to report their status.

It said that “at the first sign of COVID-19 symptoms,” these travelers should immediately contact their Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) or the DOH at hotlines (02) 8942-6843 or 8942-1555.

“[We are] verifying the test results and health status of all passengers of these flights to determine if there are other confirmed cases or passengers who became symptomatic after arrival,” it added.

The local governments had been instructed to report to the DOH and isolate any passengers from these flights who had exhibited symptoms during the 14 days after their arrival.

Preliminary studies suggest that the Omicron variant may be over 10 times more transmissible than the original virus, or 4.2 times more transmissible than the Delta variant, which caused a surge in cases a few months ago.

Alethea de Guzman, the DOH epidemiology bureau director, said further studies were needed to better understand the variant’s “transmissibility, infectivity, and effect on vaccine efficacy.”

The DOH said the two men were in an isolation facility run by the Bureau of Quarantine.

Without identifying who, the DOH said one had been fully vaccinated and the other was unvaccinated.

Caution on gatherings

With the detection of the Omicron variant, the DOH urged the public to continuously adhere to the minimum public health standards.

“Moreover, this holiday season, the public should avoid holding mass gatherings to curb the transmission of COVID-19. The DOH also urges those unvaccinated to get vaccinated,” it added.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who is also acting presidential spokesperson, praised the health experts from the DOH and the Philippine Genome Center and the National Institutes of Health of the University of the Philippines for the early detection of the two cases.

“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,” said Nograles, who is also co-chair of the government’s pandemic task force.

From the 48 samples that were sequenced, the DOH said 33 Delta variants were found—in 14 ROFs and 19 locals. The Delta variant was first detected in the country in May.

The 33 raised the total number of cases due to this variant, which caused a surge in cases several months ago, to 7,919. The 13 other samples yielded no assigned variant lineage, the DOH said.

Among the 19 local cases, three each were recorded in Central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Caraga and Soccsksargen; two from Western Visayas; and one each from the Cordillera Administrative Region, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Eastern Visayas, and Davao Region.

237 new cases

Also on Wednesday, the DOH reported 237 new COVID-19 cases, just two cases more than Tuesday’s 235.

The latest tally, however, did not include data from four laboratories that did not operate on Dec. 13 and three others that failed to submit data.

Active cases, or the number of individuals who are still sick, stood at 10,193 or 0.4 percent of the country’s total of 2,836,915.

Of the active cases, 3,876 were mild, 1,867 severe, and 391 in critical condition.

There were 565 people who recovered from the respiratory illness, bringing the total number of survivors to 2,776,273.

100 more deaths

The death toll climbed to 50,449 with 100 new fatalities. Only 14 out of the deaths, however, occurred in December, and the rest were recorded between May and November but were reportedly late for encoding in the COVIDKaya, the DOH said.

Citing the results of tests on 30,397 people last Monday, the DOH said the country’s COVID-19 positivity rate was 1.0 percent, slightly higher than Tuesday’s 0.9 positivity rate but still within the World Health Organization’s positivity target rate of below 5 percent.

The DOH also reported in its Dec. 15 bulletin that 22 percent of intensive care unit beds and 13 percent of mechanical ventilators across the country were in use.

—WITH A REPORT FROM JEROME ANING