MANILA (UPDATE) — An official of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday urged Filipinos to refrain from overreacting and assuming that the heavily mutated Omicron COVID-19 variant has entered the Philippines.

Omicron, which the World Health Organization (WHO) said carries a "very high" risk, has triggered global border closures and cast a shadow on recovery efforts from the 2-year pandemic. First reported on Nov. 24 from South Africa, the variant has spread to over a dozen countries.

"It’s always difficult to be very specific. They (public) should not assume that something is here, it needs to be confirmed by testing," said WHO country representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe.

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He said the Philippines should implement “risk-based” approaches and increase preparedness.

"I don’t think we need to overreact. We just need to be very rational in our approach," he said in a televised public briefing.

The Philippines should not only "look for Omicron only in countries that have confirmed the virus," Abeyasinghe added.

All returning Filipinos are tested using confirmatory swabs or RT-PCR except those fully vaccinated from green list countries with negative predeparture tests, the Department of Health said.

"Of those that tested positive, only those who have CT (cycle threshold) value of < (less than) 30 are eligible for sequencing, regardless of country of origin. So yes, we are now looking at our samples on hand for all November arrivals for Omicron," said Dr. Beverly Ho, head of the DOH Disease Prevention and Control Bureau

The WHO on Monday said no deaths had yet been linked to the new variant.

"Omicron has an unprecedented number of spike mutations, some of which are concerning for their potential impact on the trajectory of the pandemic," the WHO said.

The UN agency added further research was needed to understand Omicron's potential to escape protection against immunity induced by vaccines and previous infections.

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The WHO "supports" the Philippines' COVID-19 alert level system, said Abeyasinghe.

"We recognize that COVID-19 is here for the long term and we need to manage the risk of COVID-19 without harming the economy," he reasoned.

• Metro Manila remains under Alert Level 2 amid Omicron threat

The Philippines has been dealing with one of Asia's worst COVID-19 outbreaks and its vaccine rollout has been slower than many neighbors, with just over a third of its 110 million population inoculated.

Average new daily infections have fallen sharply to 1,644 in November from 18,579 in September, paving the way for a wider economic reopening.

Vaccination rates are uneven, however, with 93 percent of the capital region's eligible residents inoculated compared with 11 percent in the poorest parts of the south.

• Philippines: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker
• 2.5-M vaccinated at start of 'Bayanihan, Bakunahan'; some walk-ins fail to get jabs

— With a report from Reuters

Video courtesy of PTV