DOH sees community transmission of Omicron in Metro Manila

By: Xave Gregorio - Philstar.com

Passengers present their vaccination cards to personnel upon entry at the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX) in Tambo, Parañaque City on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022. The Department of Transportation has started implementingn a "no vaccination, no ride" policy on public transportation throughout Metro Manila.

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health said Saturday that there is community transmission of the highly infectious Omicron variant in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the latest surge in infections in the country that is reaching unprecedented highs.

“We are seeing community transmission of the Omicron variant here in the National Capital Region,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in Filipino over state-run People’s Television.

DOH: Philippines now at 'critical risk' for COVID-19.

Community transmission means that an infectious disease has spread extensively in a group of people, so much so that the source of the infection can no longer be traced.

“While our whole genome sequencing is lagging behind, we have already determined that there are local cases,” Vergeire said, adding that current COVID-19 trends in the country are “characteristic” of an Omicron-driven wave.

The Philippines has so far detected 43 cases of the Omicron variant, which is believed to be driving the steep increase in COVID-19 infections. Meanwhile, there are 8,497 cases of the Delta variant in the country.

While whole genome sequencing has been slow, the Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has declared that Omicron is now the dominant variant in the country, outpacing the Delta variant that previously drove a surge in cases beginning in August 2020.

From January 6 to 12, Metro Manila logged 83,649 cases — the highest ever in a week — according to preliminary data from the Department of Health.

The new wave of infections, suspected to be driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant, started out in Metro Manila and is now beginning to spread outside of the capital region, prompting the government’s pandemic task force to tighten coronavirus curbs in most of the country.

But Vergeire said that the DOH is still not seeing the peak of coronavirus cases, even after new infections hit an all-time high on Friday, when health authorities reported 37,207 new cases.

“We are still yet to see the peak which may happen at the end of the month or even later in the second week of February,” she said, adding that active cases may even double by next month.

France under PH red list amid Omicron variant threat

By THIRD ANNE PERALTA-MALONZO, SunStar

THE Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases has included France in the list of countries under red list amid the threat of the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2, which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Malacañang said on Wednesday, December 8, 2021.

Resolution 152-A issued by the IATF on December 7 stated that travelers from France, or those who have been in the territory over the past 14 days prior to arrival in the Philippines will not be allowed entry in the country from December 13 until December 15.

Passengers who have been to France within 14 days immediately preceding arrival in the Philippines and who arrive on or after 12:01 a.m. of December 10, but before 12:01 a.m. of December 13 will still be allowed entry but they are required to undergo 14-day mandatory facility-based quarantine with a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on the seventh day, with day one being the date of their arrival.

Travelers with negative RT-PCR results are still required to complete the 14-day facility-based quarantine.

Travelers who merely transited France and did not go out from the airport are not covered by the ban but are still required to undergo quarantine protocols.

Only Filipinos returning to the country from countries under red list via government-initiated or non-government-initiated repatriations and Bayanihan Flights may be allowed entry, subject to existing testing and quarantine protocols for red list countries/territories/jurisdictions.

France joined Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and Mozambique among the countries under red-list or with travel restrictions in the Philippines due to the Omicron variant.

The highly mutated Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) was first detected in Botswana, then in South Africa.

For all international inbound travel, testing and quarantine protocols also cover minors, regardless of their vaccination status.