Gov't eyes designating national vaccination days each month

National COVID-19 immunization days could be conducted on a monthly basis in light of the threat posed by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus, a report on "24 Oras" said Tuesday.

The government is studying the matter, according to Jun Veneracion's report.

Since November, the Philippines has been accelerating its vaccine rollout in order to fully inoculate up to 54 million people by the end of the year and 77 million by the first quarter of 2022.

On Monday, acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles said 7,497,802 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered during the second round of vaccination days (December 15 to 23) despite the disruption caused by Typhoon Odette.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., meanwhile, said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) met with local government units to warn of a slight increase in coronavirus disease infections following the detection of the Omicron variant.

"We already warned some LGUs and regional IATF that some cases are increasing particularly NCR (National Capital Region)," Galvez said.

Galvez advised the public to "not underestimate Omicron."

The national government is also considering extending Alert Level 2 in the country until January 2022, the report said.

On Monday, the total number of Omicron cases in the Philippines reached four, even as the DOH continued to report fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19 infections daily.

The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier said Omicron could replace Delta as the most dominant coronavirus strain. — Consuelo Marquez/VBL, GMA News