For three consecutive days, the fast-spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19 set the highest record of more than 30,000 new cases a day since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, with the most at 38,867 last January 15, 2022.
With 56 million Filipinos vaccinated, with some already boosted, many were infected and hospitalized. The Philippine General Hospital alone experienced a six-fold increase in admissions during this surge.
In Episode 83 of the Stop COVID Deaths webinar series, infectious disease and internal medicine specialist Dr. Franco Felizarta said that the Omicron wave will infect 25-50% of the world population. He warned that the more mobile we are, the more cases there will be. “The Omicron is behaving like the original ancestral virus with a lot of susceptible population.”
Compared to Delta, Omicron multiplies 70 times more quickly but replicates 10 times more slowly in lung tissues, which means it is less severe than previous variants. He emphasized the importance of vaccination as deaths are less in areas with high vaccination rates.
Looking at the trend of the surge, Dr. Felizarta predicted that the current outbreak will last two to three months.
On the bright side, he observed that for every successive wave of COVID-19, the number of deaths is decreasing. “Patients who are infected with the Omicron variant get natural immunity which increases the neutralizing antibodies to fight the virus.”
Dr. John Wong, senior epidemiologist of EpiMetrics, Inc. talked about the epidemiology of the current surge and offered some projections. He noticed that while cases are higher, deaths and hospitalizations are still lower with the Omicron as compared with the previous waves.
He emphasized that our focus now should be preventing hospitalization, testing and treating high-risk cases (A2/A3) within 3 days of symptoms, increasing access to anti-COVID oral medicine and self-administered rapid antigen testing, and avoiding superspreader events.
Dr. Anna Ong-Lim, chief of the PGH Division of Infectious & Tropical Disease in Pediatrics, addressed homecare for mild cases. She recommended optimizing mask fit and filtration to limit the spread of many viruses and protecting oneself from other respiratory tract infections. “Hindi lang sapat sabihin na magsuot ng mask, dapat gamitin ang mask ng tama.” The mask has to fit well on the contours of the face and seal the gaps on the face, she emphasized.
Dr. Ong-Lim also clarified the difference between isolation and quarantine. “Isolation means we want to separate someone who is already infected, to prevent spreading the virus. Quarantine aims to restrict the activities of somebody who has already been exposed and monitor his or her symptoms.”
She also believes that testing should be deprioritized in favor of immediate management—a shift from the previous test-trace-treat approach. “Omicron has distinct features that require a paradigm shift for effective response. Immediate isolation first before testing.”
PGH Deputy Director for Health Operations Dr. Stella Marie L. Jose capped the webinar with a synthesis and closing remarks. Click here to watch the full episode.
Anne Marie Alto
