The Department of Health (DOH) said that the BA.2.12 Omicron subvariant is 2.5 times more transmissible than the original version of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that this subvariant of Omicron is currently spreading in the United States of America.
"This BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1 are now spreading across the United States. Ninety-three percent of their infections right now are comprised mainly of BA.2.12 sublineage of the Omicron," said Vergeire in an interview with CNN Philippines on Thursday, April 28.
"Experts are saying, based on science also—this is 2.5 times more transmissible than the original Omicron variant," she added.
However, initial studies suggest that BA.2.12 causes less severe disease than the original form of Omicron.
"They have found based on their experience that this does not cause much severe infection compared to the original Omicron," said Vergeire.
"It is not still being classified by the WHO (World Health Organization) as a variant of interest nor a variant of concern," she added.
The DOH is also not discounting the possibility that there are other cases of BA.2.12 in the Philippines.
"Well the possibility is there. We know the limitations of our testing, we know limitations of our sequencing. So the possibility of BA.2.12 is here, meron din posibilidad na ibang variant, baka andito rin (also, it is possible that other variants are present here too). That is a possibility that we are preparing for," she said.
"Kailangan lang natin malaman na itong mga variants na ito, talagang hindi naman natin masasabi na mapipigil natin ang pagpasok nila sa ating bansa (We just need to understand that these variants—we really can't say that we can stop them from entering our country),” she added.
"So, what would be most important is we are all prepared. Prepared ang ating hospitals, prepared ang ating mga facilities, prepared ang local governments, and individually kailangan meron tayong bakuna, boosted tayo (Our hospitals, facilities, and local governments must be prepared. And individually, we need to get vaccinated, boosted), and we comply with the minimum public health standards," she furthered.
Due to the high transmissibility of this subvariant, it is also possible that the country will once again experience a high number of Covid-19 cases, said Vergeire.
“We made our projections wherein if a variant of concern or these kinds of variants come in the country and there would be reduction in the compliance to minimum public health standards, we would be seeing around 60,000 cases per day just in NCR (National Capital Region) alone,” she noted.
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