The Office of the President has been informed that two cases of the Omicron variant have now been detected in the Philippines. As earlier reported by the Department of Health, the variant was detected among two recent travelers to the Philippines, both of whom are presently in quarantine facilities.

We laud our health experts, particularly the Department of Health, the University of the Philippines – Philippine Genome Center and the University of the Philippines – National Institutes of Health for their early detection of these two cases. At present, active case finding and contact tracing are being conducted to determine the health condition of co-passengers of the said confirmed cases.

This early detection forms part of our Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate (PDITR) strategy that has been in place all throughout the pandemic. We assure our people that we will closely monitor developments of the two cases in light of existing protocols, as we continue to remind the public not to let their guard down, to religiously observe minimum public health standards, and call upon all those unvaccinated to get their jabs as soon as possible.