Duterte 'nervous' as Philippines braces for omicron

The president of the Philippines said he is worried the omicron variant of the coronavirus could further drain the nation's finance.

Duterte said in a televised meeting with Cabinet officials on Tuesday, that  additional funds are urgently needed to deal with Typhoon Rai's massive devastation.

In the Philippines, one of the worst-hit by the pandemic in Southeast Asia, daily COVID-19 infections have considerably dropped from an average 22,000 cases just three months ago during an alarming spike set off by the delta variant to just a few hundred in recent days after a delayed vaccination campaign considerably intensified with more vaccine shipment deliveries.

Quarantine restrictions were eased, allowing large numbers of Filipinos and their children to troop back to shopping malls ahead of Christmas and attend traditional pre-Christmas dawn masses in churches in the largest Roman Catholic nation in Asia. Some hospitals have begun dismantling Covid-19 wards.

The emergence of the omicron variant of the coronavirus prompted the Philippine government to recall a decision to reopen the Southeast Asian nation to foreign tourists starting Dec. 1 and further intensify a vaccination campaign, including the provision of booster shots.

More than 43 million of the country's 110 million people have been vaccinated so far.

Health officials have detected only three omicron infections in recently arrived Filipino and foreign travelers, but President Rodrigo Duterte worried the omicron strain could ignite a new outbreak that could further strain the government's finances, especially after a powerful and deadly typhoon devastated several central and southern provinces last week.

The Department of Health in Manila has reported more than 2.8 million COVID-19 cases with 50,916 deaths in the Philippines, the second-highest totals in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.

IMAGE: AP