No evidence yet Omicron could cause more severe COVID-19 illness, death —DOH

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said there is no evidence yet that the Omicron variant, classified by the World Health Organization as a "variant of concern," could cause a more severe illness or a higher chance of death to a COVID-19 patient.

"Walang ebidensya na ang Omicron variant ay nakakapag-cause ng mas malalang sakit, makakapagpataas ng tiyansa ng death o 'di kaya merong particular age group tulad ng mga bata na mas magiging apektado," DOH Epidemiology Bureau director Dr. Alethea de Guzman said at the Laging Handa briefing.

(There is no evidence that the Omicron variant can cause a more serious illness, or increase the risk of death or that a particular age group such as children will be more affected.)

"All of these data are continuously being studied by the WHO and our global experts and it is expected that we will have new data available or recommendations in the next week or two," De Guzman added.

The DOH thus called for the strengthening of the border control in the country's international ports.

De Guzman added that there are possible delays in reports of countries that had local cases of the Omicron variant.

The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Thursday disclosed the new testing and quarantine protocols for travelers arriving from countries which are not on the Philippines' red list amid the threat of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Nograles said the task force also amended the metrics for determining alert level classifications of provinces, highly urbanized cities, and independent component cities.—AOL, GMA News