Known omicron variant cases in Baguio City climbed to nine with the detection of seven additional cases in the Jan. 25 biosurveillance report of the Philippine Genome Center.
The report included 5 additional delta variant cases padding the total of variants of concern (VOC) identified afflictions in the city to 400 broken down as follows: 117 alpha; 52 beta; 222 delta and 9 omicron.
The delta report proved that the more virulent variant had remained to be a threat in the city, an assumption aired by Mayor Benjamin Magalong last Jan. 24 after the city’s COVID-19 deaths rose in the past days amid the surge caused by the less severe omicron variant.
The omicron report, on the other hand, affirmed that is now omicron is now the dominant variant fueling the active transmission in the community.
Of the 5 delta cases, 4 had recovered while 1 died. All omicron cases had already recuperated.
The mayor said back contact tracing and link analysis were done to determine circumstances of the patients and provide a clue where the infection originated to guide the city in its preventive measures.
(Source: PIO Baguio, photo courtesy by Joseph Manzano)