DOH monitoring 2 Omicron subvariants

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is monitoring two COVID Omicron subvariants, which already account for more than five percent globally in terms of prevalence based on the total samples sequenced.

“That’s a lot considering the numerous subvariants of Omicron that we have now. And these are BQ.1.1 and BA.2.75,” said DOH Epidemiology Bureau director Alethea De Guzman at a recent media forum.

The health official said BQ.1.1 accounts for almost 14 percent, while the BA.2.75 accounts for around 17 percent of prevalence.

“Their significant contribution means they are continuously occurring and haven’t been replaced by new subvariants. These are the subvariants we often see either globally or locally,” said De Guzman.

BQ.1.1 is a BA.5 sublineage, which appears to be more transmissible.

On the other hand, BA.2.75 was first reported in India and dubbed as “Centaurus.” Preliminary studies suggest that this variant exhibits immune evasion though there is no evidence yet on increased transmissibility and impact on disease severity.

De Guzman said, “Various Omicron subvariants with higher transmissibility or more significant immune evading capacity have actually emerged and we are continuously monitoring it, both at the global and local levels.”

“These variants are being flagged again because they are more transmissible or they have this enhanced immune evasion capacity, but we would like to clarify that even though it can result to increase in cases there is no concrete evidence yet to show that these variants can cause a more severe disease or even more fatalities among our COVID-19 cases,” De Guzman stressed.

She likewise said the “SARS-CoV-2 (virus) continues to evolve and vaccine deployment is very important to minimize its negative impact.”

De Guzman added, “We don’t want to have more severe disease especially among our vulnerable population, and we know that these are the ones who are older, the ones with existing comorbidities.”

The health official also pointed out the importance of conducting surveillance.

“Surveillance is not just looking for cases but being able to sequence enough so we know the total number of variants we have. All of these data we use so that our pandemic response is adequate and timely,” De Guzman said.

Meanwhile, the DOH recorded 696 new COVID-19 infections Friday, bringing the active cases to a total of 12,491.

Metro Manila, for the past two weeks, still led with 1,984 cases, followed by Calabarzon with 998,and Central Luzon with 491 cases.

Cagayan Valley recorded 383 cases while Western Visayas logged 339 cases.