THE Department of Health (DOH) reported 10 additional Covid-19 cases in Davao Region with the Omicron variant.
In a press statement issued on January 27, DOH said Davao Region is among the 14 other regions in the country that recorded new Covid-19 cases with the Omicron variant.
Davao Region now has a total of 15 Covid-19 cases with Omicron variant, the highest in Mindanao.
DOH-Davao has yet to issue additional information regarding the new Omicron cases.
Davao Region detected its first five Omicron cases on January 20 from 35 specimen samples collected on December 23 and 29, 2021.
Due to its highly-transmissible trait, more cases with the Omicron variant may be circulating in the region but have yet to be detected. DOH-Davao officials attributed the current surge of Covid-19 cases to the said variant.
“Basically, we can really attribute this to Omicron. We have already local cases na detected of Omicron here sa atong region, so we assume that maybe, there are really omicron variants circulating here,” said Dr. Rachel Pasion, head of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of DOH-Davao, on January 20.
Meanwhile, the 10 new omicron cases in the region are among the 618 new Omicron variant cases nationwide that were detected in the latest genome sequencing run.
Of the 618 cases, 497 are local cases while 121 are returning overseas Filipinos.
The local cases were composed of 238 cases from the National Capital Region, 71 cases from Calabarzon, 30 cases from Ilocos Region, 27 cases from Central Luzon, Cagayan valley with 19, 13 cases from the Cordillera Administrative Region, two from Bicol Region, and one from Mimaropa.
Eastern Visayas also recorded 28 cases, Central Visayas with 20, and Western Visayas with 30 cases.
In Mindanao, six cases were also detected in Soccsksargen and one case from Northern Mindanao.
According to recent studies, although easily transmitted, the Omicron variant may pose mild and influenza-like symptoms but infected individuals should still submit to immediate isolation.
“We are really emphasizing isolation among the symptomatic individuals because yun lang po yung maka-cut ng transmission, if we isolate ourselves. Even without subjecting ourselves to testing, we should isolate ourselves so that we cannot transmit more,” Pasion said.