Cases of Omicron subvariant BQ.1 of the Covid-19 virus have been detected in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) announced on Friday, Nov. 25.

Based on the latest genome sequencing result, 14 cases of Omicron subvariant BQ.1 were found. The DOH said that 13 of which are local cases—from Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, Calabarzon, Central Visayas, and the National Capital Region.

DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said that this subvariant “is more transmissible and highly immune-evasive compared to other subvariants of Omicron.”

Vergeire reminded the public that viruses, like the SARS-Cov-2 virus, naturally mutate over time.

“These variants are part of the life cycle of the virus. They will continue to mutate because it is part of their life cycle,” she said in a media forum.

“As long as there are hosts—which are humans, tulad ng maraming hindi bakunado, nagkakaroon ng tyansa na magmutate ang ating mga virus (like many remains unvaccinated, the virus then have a chance to mutate),” she added.

At this current situation of the pandemic, the public should be more concerned on how they should protect themselves against the Covid-19 virus, said Vergeire.

“We have always reiterated to everybody that it is high time for us to be aware that whatever variants or subvariants are detected, our protocols for protection are all the same,” she said.

“The focus should be how we get ourselves protected and that is vaccination and following minimum public health standards,” she added.

‘Not significant’

Meanwhile, the observed rise in Covid-19 cases in Metro Manila is not significant, said Vergeire.

The Health official made the statement following the Octa Research Group’s report that the positivity rate in Metro Manila rose to 9.2 percent from 7.8 percent in the past week.

“We can now say that the Covid-19 cases, although some form of increase in number, the increase is not significant at this point,” she said.

“What would be most important for all of us right now would be that we are assured that our healthcare system is okay, our hospitals are all at low-risk capacity or occupancy for our Covid cases,” she added.

The Health official said that “cases are expected to still be here. Covid-19 virus is not going away.”

“What would be most important for all of us right now would be that severe and critical cases are at that minimum level and deaths are at minimum level, and our hospitals’ occupancy are all manageable,” she added.