The Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday, Nov. 29 that it is in a state now where it is expecting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) variant of concern Omicron to enter the country anytime.
In a media briefing, Dr. Althea de Guzman, medical specialist at the DOH Epidemiology Bureau said that the projection of Omicron's entry does not matter much and that the agency's thinking now is how to prevent it from entering and what should be done once it is detected sooner.
"At any time we should be prepared na baka pumasok na siya. Baka makita na natin siya sa mga Returning Overseas Filipinos (ROFs), baka makita na natin siya sa ating mga local cases (At any time we should be prepared that it might enter. We might see it in ROFs, we might see it in local cases)," she said.
De Guzman explained that the DOH has a 4-door strategy in response to the report of the variant of concern. Door 1 is the imposition of travel bans and restrictions. She stated that "we want to limit people who are coming from areas with local cases to come and reach our borders."
Next, Door 2 is the screening, quarantine, and testing at points of entry. Those entering the country's borders need to observe the testing and quarantine protocols and that if anyone tested positive, they will be isolated and that their samples will be sequenced.
Upon the entry of the variant of concern, Doors 3 and 4 will be in place which will include strengthening the prevent, detect, isolate, treat and reintegrate (PDITR) strategy and ensuring that the local health systems are prepared for a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases as well as the monitoring of its effect in hospitalization.
So far, according to De Guzman, initial studies have not yet shown that a certain age group will be more vulnerable to the said variant of concern and it has also not been established that it will be more severe and deadly.
"Pero dahil nga nakakita tayo ng maraming mutations dito sa variant na to kaya tinataas natin ang pagbabantay at yung ating response upang maprevent or madelay natin as much as possible ang entry ng variant na ito sa Pilipinas (But because we have seen a lot of mutations with this variant, we are tightening our security and response to prevent or delay as much as possible its entry to the Philippines)," she said.
According to the data provided by the DOH, Omicron's first known confirmed case was detected on a specimen collected on Nov. 9 in South Africa and was then detected in Botswana and Hong Kong. It has since comprised 75 to 100 percent of sequenced cases in the Gauteng Region of South Africa.