MANILA, Philippines — The new COVID-19 variant IHU is not seen to overtake Delta or Omicron as the dominant variant should it enter the Philippines, an official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.
WHO Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said that so far the IHU variant has not shown a capacity to dominate in terms of transmission.
“This variant has not shown a capacity to predominate in transmission so it doesn’t seem to have the capacity to be displacing Delta or Omicron,” he said in a Laging Handa public briefing.
He said the WHO is still studying the new variant but it has so far been classified as a “variant under monitoring.”
Abeyasinghe, however, said that he “does not think at this point in time that it [IHU] warrants to be classified as a variant of concern.”
So far, no IHU variant has been detected in the Philippines.