Omicron may soon replace Delta as dominant COVID-19 variant in PH

The Omicron variant may soon replace the Delta variant as the dominant COVID-19 variant in the Philippines, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO country representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe noted that it would be difficult to determine the predominant variant soon due to a limited number of sequencing results from other regions.

However, he believes Omicron will displace Delta as it has in other countries, especially as it has a lower incubation period and progresses faster.

This comes as the Department of Health previously announced Omicron as the dominant variant, citing that 60% of recent whole genome sequencing samples tested positive for it.

The Philippines breached 3 million total COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, with 28,007 new infections reported, marking the third-highest daily tally since the pandemic began.

The national COVID-19 death toll reached 52,511 after 219 additional fatalities were recorded.

DOH raised the country's COVID-19 risk classification to critical due to an almost eightfold increase in the weekly average daily case count.