TACLOBAN CITY - The Department of Health (DOH-8) has confirmed the presence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Omicron variant in Eastern Visayas.
Doctor Arnolfo Albornoz, Asst. Regional Director of DOH-8, said of the 90 swab samples sent to the Philippine Genome Center, 28 tested positive for Omicron.Of the 28 cases,13 are from Leyte, 12 are from Samar, 2 from Eastern Samar, and 1 from Southern Leyte province.
Eastern Visayas remains on Alert Level 3, except Northern Samar, which has been placed under Alert Level 4.
As of January 27, the region has logged a total of 59,590 COVID-19 cases with a total of 55,591 or 93.29 percent recoveries, and 637 or 1.07 percent total deaths.
Of these, 3,363 or 5.64 percent are active cases.DOH-8 has also reported medium-risk in the current bed utilization rate for the entire region, except for Tacloban City and Ormoc City, which are at a high-risk level, and Eastern Samar at a low-risk level as of January 26.