(Eagle News) – The highly infectious Covid-19 variant Omicron could also cause severe infection for vulnerable groups, including the elderly and those with comorbidities, according to an infectious disease expert.
Vaccine expert panel member Dr. Rontgene Solante said they they are studying data from other countries, including the United States, showing an increase in Covid-19 cases, or what appeared to be another wave of cases due to the so-called “stealth Omicron” or the subvariant BA.2.
Solante noted “small studies” on stealth Omicron and its potential to cause severe infection in Covid-19 high-risk groups.
“Although these are yet in small studies na aside from being highly transmissible itong BA.2 it [has also the potential] to cause also severe infection especially the vulnerable population,” he said.
-Monitoring of Omicron cases-
“And that’s what we are trying to monitor and find out if the increase in the cases in other countries is also associated with increase in healthcare utilization kung saan it is caused by a severe type of a BA.2,” Solante said in a Laging Handa press briefing.
In Hong Kong for instance, where the surge in cases is blamed on the Omicron variant, local modelling predicts the city might see as many as 180,000 infections and 100 deaths daily by mid-March.
In Germany, the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic risked pushing the German economy — Europe’s largest — into a technical recession before staging a recovery from the second quarter.
In the United States, the 28-day cases of Covid-19 reached 5.74 million, while deaths for the past 28 days due to the virus have reached nearly 63,000.
Dr. Solante said that for now, they still have no data yet to determine if the spike in cases in other countries recently was associated with an increase in health care utilization, or if this is caused by the Omicron subvariant.
“So, sa ngayon, wala pa tayong ganoong klaseng data na nakikita but it has a potential to cause a severe disease and that’s what we will be monitoring,” he said noting how the ‘stealth Omicron’, BA.2, can cause severe infections for vulnerable groups.
“The problem with the BA.2 is more on its high transmissibility higher than that of the BA.1,” Solante said.
-Boosters urged as additional protection-
This is why getting boosters after the primary series of vaccination is important, he said, as this strengthens the protection against getting severe Covid-19.
Health officials are pushing for the vaccination and boostering of the elderly and those with comorbidities.
The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier pointed out that there were still around 3 million senior citizens who have not yet been vaccinated in the country.
The Covid-19 subvariant BA.2 or the so-called ‘stealth Omicron’ is the dominant variant in the country, according to an earlier genome testing of the Philippine Genome Center.
(Eagle News Service)
