Virus strains not worth worrying

The public should not worry too much about the brand of vaccine that would be the most effective against the new Covid-19 variants, including Omicron BQ.1, a sublineage of the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant, since all brands of vaccines remain to be effective against the emerging strains, the Department of Health said Saturday.

"The science of Covid-19 is evolving every day. There's a new data experts are already studying," Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said Saturday.

"Despite this, what is clear to us is that our layers of protection continue to be effective against Covid-19 and its variants. Particularly for vaccines, the challenge is ensuring that they remain effective against these emerging variants," the OIC furthered.

The country has logged 14 cases of BQ.1, citing the most recent genome sequencing at UP-Philippine Genome Center, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and San Lazaro Hospital from 28 October to 18 November.

As the new variants will naturally emerge with the continuous transmission, the DoH then appealed to that who haven't received any vaccines or booster shots to finally get inoculated as it would bolster their protection against the virus as well as prevent the emergence.