DAGUPAN CITY – The province of Ilocos Norte has recorded its first case of the highly transmissible coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Omicron variant.
Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc confirmed the information through his Facebook page on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 16.
“The Department of Health just confirmed our longtime suspicions that the Omicron Variant is present in Ilocos Norte,” he said.
Manotoc said the public should not panic or overreact as most of the Iloconos have already been inoculated.
“Omicron is milder, and we now know much more about the virus, especially the safety measures that work,” he said.
Although the governor did not disclose any more details about the case, the provincial government he said will not impose “any wide-scale, hard lockdowns”.
“We will dance with, and live with, the virus and we look forward to it becoming an endemic as many scientists say,” he added.
However, Ilocos Center for Health Development (CHD 1) COVID-19 focal person Dr. Rheuel Bobis confirmed that the first Omicron variant case in the province is a 70-year-old man who was a returning overseas Filipino (ROF).
On Jan. 15 the provincial government recorded 197 new COVID-19 confirmed cases, pushing the number of active infections to 1,003.
The province is under Alert Level 3 system until Jan. 31.