
Metro Manila stays under Alert Level 1 until June 30

MANILA – The OCTA Research believes the recorded slight increase in the Covid-19 cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) was caused by the emergence of more transmissible Omicron subvariants and not due to the May 9 elections.“Palagay namin epekto ito ng panibagong subvariant rather… Read More
The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday said it is premature to declare a local transmission of the BA2.12.1 Omicron subvariant in the Philippines without enough evidence.Two local cases were detected in the National Capital Region (NCR) and 12 in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan in… Read More
The country’s first detected case of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) Omicron subvariant had four close contacts from Quezon City.In a message to the Philippine News Agency on Friday, Dr. Rolly Cruz, head of the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU), also corrected… Read More
The Philippines will always be ready for the emergence of any variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday warned that the recombinant virus of the Delta-Omicron variants may spread after it was identified in several regions in… Read More
By ROGER M. BALANZA
Vergeire said that while the country’s daily Covid-19 tally continues to decline, there is a very high probability of a new variant emerging.
The virus can still mutate and there is no telling whether new mutations, if ever, will be less or severely more transmissible or deadly, Vertgeire said..
“We are not in an endemic state yet. We are in transition toward getting into that endemic state. But for now, because we are seeing that cases are declining, we are seeing that the cases are milder in characteristics compared to the Delta variant but it does not mean that we are in that endemic state already. It does not mean that there will be no variants any more that will come in the future,” Vergeire said at The Manila Times online forum.