The Department of Health (DOH) has detected the BA.1 and the BA.2 or the Stealth Omicron, subvariant to the highly contagious Omicron COVID-19 variant.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said BA.1 is most common in returning overseas Filipinos and in Region V while the BA.2 is most common in local cases in every region.
As of now, Vergeire said there is still no definite clinical differences between the BA.1 and BA.2 sublineage.
"Kinakailangan pa rin po ng masusing pag-aaral dahil limitado pa rin ang ating mga obserbasyon na nakukuha dito," she said.
According to Reuters, the BA.2 variant is now under investigation because it could have a growth advantage, replacing the original omicron variant.
In an interview with DZRH, Dr. Nina Gloriani, Department of Science and Technology vaccine development expert panel head, said the subvariant has slight differences with Omicron, but experts have yet to identify its properties.
"Ibig sabihin malapit siya sa Omicron, mayroong konting ibang changes pero sa ngayon ito ay considered a variant under investigation pa lang so hindi pa talaga alam kung ano ang kanyang properties," she said in an interview.
(This means it is close to Omicron, only with slight changes. But for now, it is still considered a variant under investigation so we don’t know about its properties yet.)
It remains unknown whether the subvariant could evade immunity provided by the vaccines, but Gloriani said observations on the subvariant showed that infected patients are experiencing mild symptoms.
"Hindi pa nalalaman kung nag-eevade siya ng immune response dun sa mga bakuna," she said.
