Infectious disease expert favors raising high risk areas to Alert Level 4

An infectious disease expert on Saturday recommended raising high-risk areas in the country to Alert Level 4 following the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, as well as the threat of the Omicron variant.

"We know that the escalation to a higher alert level will always be dictated by the number of cases. With the hospital facilities now, shortage of healthcare workers, and most of those patients with high transmissibility in the community, in my opinion, we need a higher alert level than what we have now," Dr. Rontgene Solante said at the Laging Handa public briefing.

For Solante, the transmission of the Omicron variant in communities is already happening.

"With the enormous number of people being positive within just a short duration of time, and most of them are manifesting with upper respiratory tract symptoms, then I would say there is already a community transmission of Omicron variant."

Citing experts, Solante said the Omicron variant could be three to five times as highly transmissible as the Delta variant due to heavy mutations.

"That's why we're seeing a lot of these positives now, not only in the community but we're also seeing a lot of these in healthcare facilities."

Responding to a claim that the Omicron variant could act as a "natural vaccine" when an infected person recovers, Solante said the fact remains that COVID-19 is still a virus.

"Even if you are infected with the Omicron variant, it doesn't mean that you are in your lifetime protected against COVID. Because as long as there is mutation, as long as there is community transmission, then you can always get COVID," he said.

"We just can't rely that we acquire an infection. We still have to protect ourselves, we still have to get ourselves vaccinated."

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Saturday also raised the possibility of upgrading the quarantine status in the National Capital Region (NCR) to Alert Level 4 as COVID-19 cases continue to surge. -- BAP, GMA News