Philippines BA.2.12 found 44 patient contacts

Philippine health authorities have identified at least 44 people who had close contact with Finnish visitors who tested positive for an omikron mutation of the coronavirus.

Among them were 30 co-passengers on his flight to the Philippines, Health Under-Secretary Maria Rosario Verge told the ABS-CBN news channel on Thursday. All of them are being monitored for the BA.2.12 Omicron subvariant, while some have tested negative.

The Finnish woman, 52, experienced mild symptoms nine days after her arrival on April 2, the Department of Health (DoH) said on Wednesday. He was not isolated because he was fully vaccinated and showed no symptoms when he arrived.

The woman traveled to a university in Quezon City and Baguio City to attend a seminar before returning to Finland on April 21.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has flagged the sublinease of the Omicron variant, which has been identified among a growing number of patients in the United States.

“Most of them were fully vaccinated,” she said of her close acquaintances. “Some tests were done and were negative. No one is feeling the symptoms during this time. ”

The BA.2.12 Omicron subvariant makes the most coronavirus cases in the United States, DoH said, citing data from the CDC.

DoH noted that 63% or 83 omicrons out of 132 local samples in the recent sequence. Samples came from 10 regions and Finnish who tested positive for the BA.2.12 subvariant.

The woman could be infected either on her way to the Philippines or when she arrives, Ms Vergeri said.

“The virus has 14 days of incubation. He can get it during his travels. He arrived here on April 2, the ninth day of his infection, April 10, he had symptoms, “he added.

Meanwhile, party-list representative Angelica Natasha Co called on the government to set higher requirements for vaccination.

“The DoH and the inter-agency task force need to raise the minimum for fully vaccinated conditions to make booster shots, not just the initial dose,” he said in a statement. “By the end of July or within three months from now, the definition of a fully vaccinated condition should be aligned with the second booster shot.”

Second booster shots should be made available to everyone to respond quickly to the risk of another wave, Mrs. Coe said.

More than 67 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, of which about 13 million have been injected with booster shots, according to DoH.

OCTA Research Group Fellow Friedegusto P. David told a Virtual Town meeting on Monday that the Philippines could experience a further increase in coronavirus infections between May or June, which other countries are now experiencing.

The Philippines on Monday began giving critically ill people a second booster shot against the coronavirus.

Among those eligible for the shots were people with weakened immune systems, living with HIV, cancer, transplant and bedridden patients and critically ill, the Department of Health (DOH) said in a statement.

An outbreak of COVID-19 could occur among unvaccinated Filipinos, said Teodoro J. Harbosa, an adviser to the National Task Force on COVID-19.

OCTA President Ranjit S. Rai, quoting a survey they conducted from March 5 to 10, said 77% of Filipinos are willing to get their booster shot, while 23% are unsure.

He added that 53% of those who were unsure felt that booster shots were safe, while 35% thought it was not necessary.

Only a handful of areas in the Capital Region were ready to roll out a second booster shot, the health department said Monday.

According to Nina Gloriani, head of the government’s vaccine expert panel, members of the vulnerable sector should find a vaccine brand that is different from their previous shots for further protection.

The second booster vaccine should be injected three months after the first, the health department said earlier.

Ms Gloriani, head of the government’s vaccine expert panel, said the government would soon provide a second booster to increase the safety of seniors and health workers.

An independent DoH advisory agency is expected to release its recommendation this week on the use of a second booster shot for the department.

Mrs Gloriani said they did not expect any security issues.

Some medical frontliners and senior citizens mistakenly received a second booster shot at a hospital in Metro Manila this week, although the initial rollout was supposed to be limited to people with weakened immune systems. – Norman P. Aquino And Alyssa Nicole and. Tan