Public health emergency remains due to COVID-19 variants threat –health expert

Infectious diseases expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said Sunday that among the reasons the state of public health emergency is not yet lifted in the country is due to the threat of COVID-19 variants of concern.

In a Super Radyo dzBB interview, Solante said COVID-19 infections in the country are now “very stable” and even the hospitals are no longer getting overwhelmed with new cases.

“Siguro ang nakita ko lang na pangamba dito dahil bakit hindi pa rin natin maalis-alis ‘yung public health emergency, ‘yung threat talaga ng mga variants of concern,” he said.

(Maybe the only problem I see here on why we still can't get rid of the public health emergency is because of the threat of the variants of concern.)

The state of public health emergency was declared in March 2020, the onset of the pandemic, by then-President Rodrigo Duterte .

Under Proclamation 922, the state of a public health emergency would remain in force and effect until lifted or withdrawn by the President.

The Philippines is also currently under a state of calamity due to the coronavirus outbreak after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos extended it until December 31, 2022.

The Department of Health (DOH) has been seeking the passage of a proposed measure that will serve as the basis for the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic even after the expiry of the declaration of the state of calamity in the country.

Currently, the only variant of concern tagged by the World Health Organization (WHO) is Omicron B.1.1.529.

However, the Philippines recently detected Omicron BQ.1, a sublineage of the highly transmissible Omicron BA.5 subvariant.

There are 16 total recorded BQ.1 cases in the country as of Friday, according to the Department of Health.

“Itong BQ.1, sa report ng WHO, medyo marami-rami na ring bansa na nag-report nito. Ibig sabihin, pwede siyang anytime soon, it can overtake the BA.5—ito ‘yung dominant variant so far,” he said.

(Based on the WHO report, several countries have already reported this BQ.1. That means, anytime soon, it can overtake the BA.5—the dominant variant so far.)

“Ito ay lahat anak ng Omicron and we see that kapag nagmu-mutate ang Omicron, most likely, talagang humihina siya, but highly transmissible pa rin siya,” he added.

(These are all sublineages of Omicron and we see that when Omicron mutates, most likely, it really weakens, but is still highly transmissible.)

The Philippines on Saturday logged 1,234 new COVID-19 cases, while the active tally dropped to 18,430. — DVM, GMA Integrated News