The new coronavirus variant called Omicron XE has not yet been detected in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday, April 13.
"As of the moment there are no results yet from the latest sequencing run of April. However, as of the latest run, we have yet to detect the recombinant variant 'Omicron XE' or any other recombinant variant for that matter," the DOH said in a statement.
The DOH said it is also monitoring the developments on new sub-lineages of the highly transmissible Omicron variant—BA.4 and BA.5—as the World Health Organization (WHO) is currently analyzing these two new variants.
"Although there have been detected cases in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Denmark, and the UK, this should not be any cause of concern," it said.
"There are also early indications that these two sublineages are increasing as a share of genomically confirmed cases in South Africa. There are currently no reported spike in cases, admissions, or deaths, in South Africa," it added.
DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje assured that the country is actively conducting biosurveillance activities to detect variants of concern.
"Tuloy-tuloy ang ating biosurveillance para makita natin kung nakarating na yung variant ngayon na bago at ano yung predominant variant sa ating mga kaso (We continue to conduct biosurveillance in order to detect if a new variant has entered here and to determine the predominant variant among our cases)," she said.
Cabotaje urged local government units to continuously conduct their prevent, detect, isolate, treat, and reintegrate (PDITR) strategies.
"Tuloy-tuloy pa rin ang paghahanda ng ating mga ospital, yung ating mga drugs, and yung ating mga bakunahan (Our hospitals are continuously preparing, monitoring the supply of drugs, as well as the vaccination efforts)," she added.
"Hindi tayo dapat magpakampante. Game changer has always been vaccination. Importanteng bakunado lahat. Tapos kung kailangan ng booster yung 18 years old and above, kailangan mag booster. Importante din yung mga senior citizens na magkaroon ng primary doses and mga booster (We shouldn't be complacent. Game changer has always been vaccination. Individuals 18 years old and above need a booster. It's also important for senior citizens to get their primary doses and boosters)," she furthered.