THE Department of Health (DOH) reported Tuesday, March 15, that it is monitoring two variants of Sars-CoV-2, which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), but assured that these have yet been detected in the country.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said during Tuesday night’s (March 15) Talk to the People Address of President Rodrigo Duterte that experts in the country are monitoring Deltacron (AY.4/BA.1) and an Omicron sub-lineage that was officially designated as BA.2.2 last March 7, 2022.
He said the Deltacron is a “recombinant” of Delta and Omicron variants.
Recombination, he said, requires “co-infection of the same host cell by two distinct variants” and Deltacron emerged due to the co-circulation of both Delta and Omicron for a period of several weeks in the country.
This variant, Duque said, was first detected in January 2022 in France, but as of March 15, it has not yet exhibited an ability to spread exponentially.
As of March 10, 33 samples with Deltacron were collected from France, eight from Denmark, one from Germany and one from Netherlands, the DOH reported.
The Omicron sub-lineage BA.2.2, on the other hand, was noted to be spreading in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.
“A number of countries report individual instances of the sub-lineage as well,” Duque said.
He said the rapid case increase in Hong Kong has been associated with this sub-lineage, but some researchers have also associated it with Hong Kong’s low vaccination rates, particularly in the elderly.
He said both the Deltacron and Omicron sub-lineage have not yet entered the Philippines, but he warned the public to continue to observe the minimum public health standards despite the country’s high vaccination rate.
Duque said there is a possibility that these variants will enter the Philippines, but the DOH could not say if they would cause serious Covid-19 cases.
He said the protection of the Filipino people is now better, considering that the country’s vaccination rate is high and the Philippines had experience five Covid-19 surges already.
“Our protection is better: protection from vaccination, which we have done for the majority of population and we have experienced five surges, which have rendered our population some degree of protection. So, from natural immunity to vaccination protection,” Duque told Duterte.
The DOH reported Tuesday, March 15, that 64.6 million individuals or 71.84 percent of the target population in the Philippines are already fully vaccinated, while 69.8 million people or 77.6 percent have received the first dose. Over 11.2 million have received booster shots.
The Philippines’ daily Covid-19 cases have also continued to go down, with 3,915 fresh infections recorded from March 9 to 15. This is 30 percent down from the previous week when 5,534 new cases were logged, said Duque.
He added that the daily average cases are now below 500 and the country’s recovery rate is high at 97.18 percent.
The positivity rate is also at three percent, which is below the recommended five percent of the World Health Organization.
Duque said all regions in the country are already in minimal risk classification.
READ: DOH: All areas in Philippines now ‘low risk’ for Covid-19
On Tuesday, March 15, the Inter-Agency Task Force placed 49 areas in the Philippines, including the National Capital Region, under Alert Level 1, the lowest level so far.