So it is confirmed. The presence of the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has been detected in Central Visayas.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, chief pathologist of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH 7), reported on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022 that the region has 22 cases of the Omicron variant—16 of the cases came from overseas Filipino workers, one from a returning overseas Filipino, and five from the local community.
The confirmed cases of the Omicron variant came from 78 samples, taken from Dec. 27, 2021 to Jan. 16, 2022. The results from the Philippine Genome Center were delivered to the DOH 7 on Monday, Jan. 17, the same day Dr. Loreche, while waiting for the results, opined during a briefing that Omicron is here.
“Let us consider and treat like Omicron is with us,” Dr. Loreche said.
With the PGC’s confirmation, Omicron is really here. Experts here believed that the variant could be the reason behind the current surge of Covid-19 cases. Remember the Delta variant is still around.
Omicron, the latest mutation of Sars-CoV-2, was first detected in South Africa in November last year. It is more highly transmissible than the Delta variant as there is consistent evidence that Omicron is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant in countries with documented community transmission, with a doubling time of two to three days, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Experts’ findings suggest that Omicron is less deadly than the Delta variant, but the WHO has warned the public that Omicron must not be dismissed as mild.
In an interview with The New York Times’ Ezra Klein, sociologist and NYTimes columnist Zeynep Tufekci said that having Omicron that is milder is “pure luck and evolutionary luck.”
“It is purely luck that this one is less severe because, contrary to popular belief, viruses don’t evolve to be milder. We gain immunity to them, for sure, as we get exposed, but they just want to transmit. They don’t care if you eventually die as long as they transmit through you,” she said.
“So the fact that we got a very contagious variant that happens to be milder—and I’m not saying it’s great. I’m just saying it could have been much worse—is pure luck, evolution luck.”
Filipino-American Catholic priest Nicanor Austriaco, a molecular biologist, said the Omicron could be a “blessing,” as the variant could be “the beginning of the end” of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Austriaco, an Octa Research fellow, said the people infected with the Omicron variant who survive will get antibodies that will protect them against the variant and other variants such as Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and D614G.
Due to the Omicron variant’s high transmission rate, the priest said the variant is “going to try to spread to everyone and it’s going to try to find as many of our kababayans vulnerable. It is spreading so rapidly, what you will expect is it will run out of food sooner.”
“And when it runs out of food, it will begin to crash — which is why you see in South Africa, the numbers are crashing. In London, the numbers are beginning to fall only because, once it spreads like wildfire, and when all the trees are burned, there’s nowhere for it to go. So it begins to crash,” he said on Jan. 5, 2022 during the GoNegosyo town hall meeting.
However, getting infected with the coronavirus is never a blessing. Austriaco used the word to describe the turning of the tide because of Omicron—the pandemic could become endemic. He could have used another word.
But who would want to get infected? It is a hassle to one’s self, to one’s loved ones and to one’s workmates. If one could get infected, the close contacts—immediate family members and fellow employees—will be tested for sure, and those who will test positive will be quarantined.
It is now almost two years since the pandemic hit the Philippines, and panicking is not a good response to the current surge of Covid-19 cases.
Keep calm, but still be cautious.
Protecting one’s self by wearing a mask and getting jabbed against Covid-19 is a blessing for others.