HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Monday, January 10, 2022, that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is now the dominant variant in the Philippines.
In his report during President Rodrigo Duterte’s Talk to the People Address on Monday evening, Duque said based on the whole genome sequencing run conducted on January 3, 29 out of the 48 samples turned out to be Omicron variant, while 18 were Delta variant.
“Base po sa ating pinakahuling run of our whole genome sequencing, 60 percent na po, Mister President, sa mga samples na na-sequence ay positive for Omicron variant. So siya na po ‘yung nagdo-dominate na variant whereas before it was the Delta. So 60 percent of all the sequence runs ay Omicron na po,” he said.
The Philippines is experiencing a spike in Covid-19 cases since the first week of January 2022 and it is believed to be driven by the Omicron variant, a more transmissible strain of Sars-CoV-2 that was first detected in South Africa and Botswana.
On January 10, the Department of Health reported a record-breaking high of 33,169 fresh Covid-19 cases, bringing the total tally of active cases to 157,526.
Duque said the average daily reported cases went up by 690 percent from January 4 to 10 with 20,481 average daily increase, as compared to the December 28 to January 3 period when the average daily cases was only at 2,593.
“At muli, ang NCR ang siyang may malaking ambag sa bagong caseload natin,” he said.
He said the country’s current positivity rate is at 40.4 percent, while the country's Covid-19 bed utilization rate increased to 40 percent. The intensive care unit occupancy is at 38 percent.
Duque said the Philippines is currently at critical risk for Covid-19.
Despite the increase in cases, Duque said fewer individuals are getting critically or severely ill due to Covid-19 as compared to previous surges.
Of the active cases, 4,994 were asymptomatic, 147,912 had mild symptoms, 2,858 moderate, 1,461 were severe and 301 were critical.
"Ang sinasalamin po nito ay ang pagiging epektibo ng ating pagbabakuna at pagsunod sa minimum public health standards," he said.
As of January 10, a total of 113,364,031 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have already been administered in the Philippines.
A total of 52,849,101 people have been fully vaccinated, 57,822,417 received the first dose, and 3,577,703 had their booster shots. (SunStar Philippines)