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Possibility of COVID-19 surge due to Omicron variant 'not that high': OCTA

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Katrina Domingo, ABS-CBN News

<p><br/>MANILA— The possibility of a case surge due to the new COVID-19 Omicron variant &quot;is not that high,&quot; fellows from the OCTA Research Group said, Friday.</p><p>While the Omicron variant &quot;appears to be spreading faster&quot; than earlier COVID-19 strains, vaccinated people who contract this type of coronavirus &quot;are only showing mild symptoms at worse,&quot; OCTA Research fellow Guido David said in an online press conference.</p><p>&quot;Even if we experience an increase in cases, it will not be as bad as our experience with the delta or the alpha or the beta,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;We still do not have enough data. [So far] It is more transmissible but vaccinations may help reduce transmissibility,&quot; he said.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/12/01/21/explainer-what-is-the-covid-19-omicron-variant">Omicron variant: What we know, what we don’t on symptoms, transmission, and vaccines</a></li></ul><p>Guido explained that initial data shows that one carrier of the Omicron variant may infect up to 10 people, but among fully-vaccinated groups, the strain&#x27;s reproduction number may drop to 1 transmission.</p><p>&quot;The threat of a surge is not that high,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;The threat of another lockdown in the National Capital Region is much, much lower, based on this preliminary information,&quot; he said, noting that about 80 percent of adults in Metro Manila have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.</p><p>&quot;Provinces with low vaccine coverage may be vulnerable to surges and lockdowns,&quot; he said.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/11/29/21/who-initial-info-suggests-increased-reinfection-risk-due-to-omicron">WHO: Initial evidence suggests increased risk of reinfection due to Omicron</a></li></ul><p>These estimates may change in about 1 to 2 weeks when experts release a clearer clinical profile of the new strain, said Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, another OCTA Research fellow who is also a professor from the University of Sto. Tomas.</p><p>&quot;The chances of a surge happening between now and Christmas is very small,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;If there is going to be a surge, it will not be probably this month. It will probably be next quarter, and even then... we have such significant population immunity in the urban areas,&quot; he said.</p><p>Austriaco urged the government to ensure that communities surrounding international gateways in the country would be adequately protected against the virus.</p><p>&quot;This will hopefully provide a wall around the Ninoy Aquino International Airport so that people who arrive... even if they carry it, it will be hard to penetrate the population,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;The same thing must be done around Clark and Cebu,&quot; he said, referring to other major port cities. </p><p>As of December 2, the Department of Health has yet to detect the presence of the Omicron variant in the Philippines.</p><p>The DOH earlier said that it is in the process of tracking down some 183 more travelers from South Africa who arrived in the Philippines between Nov. 15 and 29.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/03/21/doh-says-tracing-182-more-travelers-from-south-africa">DOH says tracing 182 more travelers from South Africa</a></li></ul><div class="infogram-embed" data-id="_/yFVE69R1WlSdqY3aCsBF" data-title="COVID-19 VACCINE TRACKER PH" data-type="interactive"> </div><script type="text/javascript">!function(e,i,n,s){var t='InfogramEmbeds',d=e.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement('script');o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src='https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js',d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,'infogram-async');</script><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1844892" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

The possibility of a case surge due to the new COVID-19 Omicron variant 'is not that high,' fellows from the OCTA Research Group said, Friday.

Possibility of COVID-19 surge due to Omicron variant 'not that high': OCTA

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Possibility of COVID-19 surge due to Omicron variant 'not that high': OCTA

Katrina Domingo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Dec 03, 2021 04:16 PM PHT

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