The new Omicron variant of the coronavirus has not yet been detected in the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday, Dec. 1.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that they are still processing the positive samples that will be subjected for genome sequencing.
"Just to be clear, no detection yet of Omicron. We are still processing (the) next batch of whole genome sequences," she added.
In a related development, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines continue to decline as the DOH only recorded 500 cases on Wednesday.
The Philippines has been recording less than 1,000 cases for eight straight days already.
Based on the DOH's latest case update, the total number of active infections across the country stood at 15,327 or 0.5 percent of the Philippines' running tally of cases which stood at 2,833,038.
Data showed that 7,183 of the active cases have mild symptoms, 3,832 have moderate symptoms, 2,489 are severely ill, 1,067 are in critical condition, and 756 are asymptomatic.
The death toll, meanwhile, increased to 48,712 after 167 more patients were confirmed to have died.
The recovery tally jumped to 2,768,999 with 951 new survivors, the DOH said.
"Kahit pa tayo ay nakatanggap na ng ating bakuna, mahalaga pa rin na sumunod tayo sa minimum public health standards upang maprotektahan natin ang ating sarili laban sa COVID-19 (Even though we are vaccinated, it is still important that we adhere to minimum public health standards so that we can protect ourselves against COVID-19)," the DOH reminded the public.