Health Officials Speaks on COVID-19 Pandemic in PH, Vaccinations
HEALTH OFFICIAL – Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said that the Philippines must be ready to face another variant of concern.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently spoke a reminder to the people across the globe that the pandemic is not over. The Chief of the international health body stressed that it is not over anywhere if it is not over everywhere.
According to World Health, there is still a possibility of the mutation of the virus as long as there are active COVID-19 cases. The reminders came amid countries easing the restrictions and getting back to normal. It also came amid the decrease in coronavirus cases in several nations.
Recently, researchers in France identified cases of the “Deltacron” variant – reportedly a hybrid version of COVID-19 that combines the genes of two (2) variants of concern, Delta and Omicron.
Following the report about the cases of Deltacron in the United States and in Europe, the Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) assured that the Philippine Genome Center is monitoring the possible presence of the said hybrid version of COVID-19 in the country.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that there are still no updates from the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the characteristics of the said combined version of the Delta and Omicron variants.
Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, a Health official, DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, said that PH “should be ready to face another variant of concern”. According to her, it is based on past experiences and the experiences gathered throughout the response.
The Health official stressed that they are increasing the target population for vaccination from 70% or 70 million people to 90 million. Recently, the authorities launched another mass vaccination period which is the 4th one since the vaccination program started. More updates may be posted soon.
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