waiting for the next omicron covid to hit

The newer covid variants that are decimating China are coming to the Philippines.

 Phil Star:

Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 detected in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine health authorities have detected the first confirmed case of the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, which is said to be the most contagious variant of the virus causing COVID-19.

and hey they are giving out a new vaccine to stop it.

Meanwhile, one country will be donating more than 300,000 doses of the COVID-19 bivalent vaccines to the Philippines, the DOH said Tuesday.... These additional doses of the second-generation vaccines targeted against the Omicron variant will be on top of the 1,002,000 doses that the COVAX facility has committed to donate to the Philippines.

but if you read the whole article you will find that most people have had two basic doses, quite a few had boosters, but that there are literally millions of doses of vaccines becoming outdated and going to waste.

The problem? Omicron is a mild version of covid, and once that hit, healthy people didn't die of it as they did after routine covid.

So except for students who need it to go to school, most folk are not getting the shot.

I read that in many countries there is an increase in non covid deaths this year. I wonder if that is true here. A lot of old folks are dying of their chronic health problems such as high BP and diabetes, or of cancer. Then there are other illnesses: I just got over a bad case of Dengue fever, and now have shingles, making me wonder what is going on with my immune system (routine tests are normal, I am not a diabetic and my cholesterol/liver/kidneys are find).

Most Filipinos either had the shot or the illness, so unlike China, who shut everything down to stop the spread  I suspect most Filipinos have some immunity for covid from an earlier infection that maybe they didn't even bother to see a doctor for. 

There is not a lot of testing for covid here in the rural Philippines: the only time I was tested was in the ER waiting to be admitted for Dengue, since if it was positive I would have had to go to a hospital with isolation beds. (Dengue is spread via mosquitoes so not spread person to person).

So people are not being tested, and few will see the doctor for cold symptoms unless it evolves into pneumonia type symptoms.

Today's statistics:

• 67 new cases and 10 new deaths in the Philippines