The number of severe and critical Covid-19 patients infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant and its subvariants remains low in the country, an official of the Department of Health (DOH) said.
This is based on the DOH’s analysis on the results of the Covid-19 positive samples that underwent whole genome sequencing, said DOH Epidemiology Bureau Director Dr. Alethea De Guzman.
"Yung original Omicron, siya yung may pinakamababang proportion ng (The original Omicron has the lowest proportion of) severe and critical compared to Alpha, Beta, Delta," said De Guzman in a recent media forum.
"Kung itatanggal natin doon itong mga bagong emerging variants like BA.5, XBB, XBC, makikita natin na while mababa na nga yung proportion ng naging severe and critical for Omicron, mas mababa pa by almost half yung mga naging (If we will divide this among new emerging variants like BA.5, XBB, XBC, we can see that while the proportion of severe and critical cases for Omicron remains low, it will be even lower by almost half in terms of) severe and critical for these new variants," she added.
The Delta variant still has the highest number of severe and critical cases, said De Guzman.
Meanwhile, the Alpha variant registered the highest case fatality rate among the Covid-19 virus variants detected in the country. It was followed by the Delta variant.
“Nanatili na mababa yung mga Omicron (For Omicron, it remains to be low)—it is at 1.62 percent and right now, those that have the BA.5, XBB, or XBC is even lower at 0.28 case fatality rate,” said De Guzman.
“Of course, these numbers may change especially the severe, critical, and case fatality rate natin dito sa mga (for these) emerging variants as we foresee that we will be detecting more of these in the next few weeks or months as we continue our disease surveillance and our genomic surveillance,” she added.
De Guzman said that it is expected that new variants of Covid-19 virus will still emerge. However, the transmission of this virus can be lessened through the help of vaccination and by following the minimum public health standards.