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In Geneva, WHO experts admitted the Omicron variant appears to be no worse than other coronavirus strains. The United States agreed but said more research is needed to judge its severity.

“Emerging data from South Africa suggests increased risk of reinfection with omicron,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that “there is also some evidence that omicron causes milder disease than Delta.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the US Center for Communicable Diseases said Omicron did not appear worse than prior strains based on early indications — and was possibly milder.

More Omicron variant infections, however, continue to spread in several US states, including California where it was fi rst reported and New York. From San Francisco, Omicron variant cases were detected in Los Angeles county.

In Manila. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also said that based on evidence, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) only causes mild symptoms after meeting with WHO country representative Dr. Rabi Abeyasinghe.

At press time, the Department of Health has not detected any Omicron variant but more Delta variant cases were detected, including from two Filipinos who arrived from the United States.

The number of daily coronavirus infections in the Philippines has stayed below 400, with only 370 fresh cases logged on December 8.

The Department of Health also reported that the country’s active case tally is at 12,510, down from Tuesday’s 13,026.

The death toll, however, reached 49,761 with 171 new deaths.

The DOH detected 571 more cases of Delta variant, two of which were from two Filipinos who arrived from the United States.

Meanwhile, experts warned that Filipinos should remain vigilant in taking steps against the spread of COVID-19 after the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s announcement that 23 cities have achieved herd immunity.

Dr. Lulu Bravo, director of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination, said there was no evidence that “acquired herd immunity” would be eff ective against the Omicron variant.

In South Africa, Filipinos stranded there have been advised to remain calm and contact the Philippine Embassy, their agencies and employers after the Philippines imposed a temporary ban on travelers from the said country due to the Omicron COVID-19 variant threat.

The DOH said an additional 571 cases of the highly transmissible and dominant Delta variant of the coronavirus have been recorded nationwide. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the new Delta variant cases were from a total of 629 samples collected and sequenced on December 6.

Of the samples collected and sequenced, about 571 or 90.78 percent were Delta variant cases, one case or 0.16 percent Alpha variant, and one case or 0.16 percent are Beta variant.

“There were fi ve overseas Filipino samples sequenced – two were coming from the USA, one from Iraq, and one from Kuwait, and we are still verifying the country of origin for the last one. These samples were all positive for the Delta variant,” Vergeire added.

The new cases pushed the total Delta variant cases to 7,848, Alpha variant cases to 3,168, and Beta variant cases to 3,630.

The latest sequencing brought the number of total sequenced samples with assigned lineages to 19,305.

Vergeire noted that all regions and all cities and municipalities in the National Capital Region (NCR) either have Alpha or Beta variants detected.

The Delta variant, initially detected from returning overseas Filipinos, is now detected in all 17 regions and all NCR cities and its lone municipality.

It was the second straight day when the country logged less than 400 new cases, following Tuesday’s 356 new infections -- the lowest single-day number of infections in 17 months.

Another 861 new recoveries, meanwhile, raised the total tally to 2,773,322.

Recoveries account for 97.8 percent of the total case count of 2,835,593 since the start of the pandemic last year.

Among active cases, 4,974 are mild, 883 are asymptomatic, 476 are critical, 2,261 are severe, and 3,916 are moderate.

“Of the 113 reported deaths, only 14 occurred in December 2021. About 21 percent of the reported deaths today occurred in November 2021 due to late encoding of death information to COVID-Kaya,” the DOH said.

The COVID-Kaya is a digital application used by health care workers to collect and share data about Covid-19 cases.

The DOH added that this issue is currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date.

According to DOH data on December 6, about 1.6 percent of 28,942 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“About 27 duplicates were removed from the total case count, 25 of these are recoveries and one is death. Also, there were 95 cases that have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count as 92 of these are recoveries,” the DOH said.

To date, 24 percent of 3,500 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 24 percent of 19,600 isolation beds, 13 percent of 12,900 ward beds, and 14 percent of 3,000 ventilators are utilized by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 24 percent of 1,200 ICU beds, 21 percent of 4,700 isolation beds, 19 percent of 3,900 ward beds, and 16 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the National Capital Region.