GOVERNOR Eugenio Jose Lacson stressed Wednesday, May 18, that Negros Occidental does not intend to close its borders despite the reported cases of Omicron subvariant of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease (Covid-19), in Western Visayas.

"We'll have to observe how it goes...That variant has already been detected not only here in Western Visayas but also in other areas in the country," he said.

Lacson noted that hospital admission [due to Covid-19] is low which indicates that most likely these are very mild cases.

The governor emphasized that it's too early to discuss border closure though he urged the public to do their share by protecting themselves.

Lacson added that there's no more reason to converge this time because the campaign period and elections are over.

Saying that the fight against the virus is behavioral, he asked, "Do we take it lightly or we take it seriously?"

"I hope we take it seriously and [let us continue to] protect ourselves,"

Lacson said.

Recently, the Department of Health (DOH) has detected three more cases of the Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1. in Western Visayas.

One infected individual is a returning overseas Filipino from the United

States, and two are local cases.

Of the local cases, one of them is vaccinated while the vaccination status of the other is still under verification, the DOH reported.

At present the DOH said they have 17 detected Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1 throughout the country.