The Philippines has already recorded deaths due to the more contagious omicron variant of COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday.
According to the DOH, two people have died infected with the omicron variant, both aged 60 and over, who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and have other diseases.
The agency said that although most omicron sufferers experience mild symptoms or are asymptomatic, the elderly are still at risk of dying from it, with comorbidity and not being vaccinated.
At the same time, the DOH also announced that the total number of confirmed cases of the omicron variant had reached 535.
The DOH reported Wednesday 492 additional cases of omicron, which were confirmed in the latest batch of genome sequencing in the second week of January.
In the new batch of omicron cases, 332 were local cases.
DOH data also shows that 332 local cases are scattered in various regions of the country. Available in the National Capital Region, Calabarzon, Central Luzon, Central Visayas, Cagayan Valley, Western Visayas, Davao region, Soccsksargen, Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, Mimaropa and Bangsamoro.
Philippines records Omicron deaths
According to the DOH, 3 cases of omicron remain active, 467 have recovered, while 20 are still being verified.
As of Wednesday, the Philippines recorded 22,958 new COVID-19 cases for a total of 3,293,625 since the pandemic began.
Of the more than 3.2 million, 270,728 were active cases.
Since January 16, a noticeably lower number of new cases have been recorded.
But the DOH has yet to determine whether the country has reached the highest number of disease cases.
He said the public should understand that the reported cases are confirmed using only RT-PCR testing.
“Pero alam natin ang daming gumagamit ngayon ng antigen test sa community, sa local government and even in their homes. Alam din natin, marami din sa ating kababayan choose not to have their test anymore,” said Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire.
“Sa ngayon, it’s still early for us to conclude that the cases are going down. Usually, we wait for one week to really see the trend,” she added.
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