(File photo)
MANILA – The Department of Health is implementing active surveillance to detect other Omicron subvariants and their further transmission in the country.
This, after it confirmed Tuesday the local transmission of Omicron BA.2.12.1 subvariant and three new cases of it were detected in the Western Visayas region.
“Kelangan ituloy natin itong aktibong pagmamatiyag at pagmo-monitor kung mayroon pang further na makikita sa subvariants na ito at may (We need to continue this active surveillance and monitoring to see other subvariants and) further transmission of these subvariants,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online media forum.
So far, the country has a total of 17 Omicron BA.2.12.1 cases.
Of the tally, some 16 are local cases and one is a returning overseas Filipino.
“So we have recommended to our implementing units that the preference for us right now for laboratory tests would be RT-PCR because its only RT PCR na pwede tayong gumawa ng (that we can perform) genome sequencing,” Vergeire said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Eva Maria Cutiongco-dela Paz, executive director of the University of the Philippines Manila – National Institutes of Health, urged those with symptoms to do RT-PCR testing and not antigen testing.
“Antigen testing, hindi napi-pick-up, hindi nare-report kase ginagawa iyan sa bahay tapos ang ginagawa ng ating mga kababayan nag-a-isolate na kapag nagpa-positive (its results are not reported because it’s done at home and our fellowmen simply self-isolate when they test positive),” she said.
Dela Paz added that the country has more than 300 laboratories offering reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests and four laboratories performing whole genome sequencing. (PNA)
