Maaaring palitan ng Omicron variant ng coronavirus ang Delta bilang dominanteng variant sa Pilipinas, ayon sa kinatawan ng World Health Organization sa bansa na si Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe kahapon.
Nabanggit ni Abeyasinghe na magiging mahirap matukoy sa lalong madaling panahon kung aling variant ang nangingibabaw dahil sa “masyadong kakaunti” na mga resulta ng sequencing mula sa ibang mga rehiyon.
“We believe that in the near future, Omicron will displace Delta variant as the predominant variant as it has done in several other countries. The last batch of samples were largely from NCR (National Capital Region) and from returning overseas Filipinos who tested positive and so, it’s not surprising that among the ROFs and also in NCR that we are seeing now Delta variant being displaced by the Omicron variant,” ayon kay Abeyasinghe sa isang televised public briefing.
Nauna rito, sinabi ni Philippine Genome Center chief, Dr. Cynthia Saloma, na maraming Delta variant cases ang nakita pa rin sa sequencing run noong Disyembre.
Idinagdag ni Abeyasinghe na mahirap tukuyin kung ang bansa ay nasa kasagsagan na ng pagtaas ng kaso o patuloy pang tataas ang mga kaso.
“We are seeing that the incubation period in Omicron is lower than with the Delta and with the various type. And so, this progresses much faster and develops much faster,” ayon sa kanya.
Noong Miyerkules bandang 4:00 ng hapon, nakapagtala ang Department of Health ng 32,246 na bagong impeksyon sa coronavirus, na nagtulak sa kabuuang bilang ng bansa sa 3,058,634 na may 208,164 na aktibong kaso.
Sinabi ni Abeyasinghe na ang bansa ay patuloy na makakakita ng pagtaas ng mga kaso habang ang virus ay kumakalat sa ibang mga rehiyon tulad ng Central Visayas, Region 4-A (Calabarzon), at Region 5.
“Even in Visayas and Mindanao. So, this is inevitably going to happen, but we need to be careful in assessing and jumping to conclusions,” dagdag pa niya.
Pinaalalahanan niya ang publiko na pigilan ang pagkalat ng virus sa pamamagitan ng mahigpit na pagsunod sa minimum public health standards.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
