BY WENDELL VIGILIA and GERARD NAVAL
HEALTH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire yesterday assured lawmakers there is “nothing” to be alarmed even if the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country has reached 822 cases daily, or 79 percent higher than what was recorded in the past two weeks.
Vergeire made the disclosure before the House Committee on Appropriations which held an oversight meeting on the budgetary performance of the Department of Health (DOH).
“Most of these cases are mild and asymptomatic cases. We will have about eight to nine percent of those with COVID that are classified as severe and critical,” she told lawmakers.
On Tuesday, the DOH reported that the number of COVID cases was averaging 637 cases daily for the period of April 24 to 30, which was 42 percent higher than cases reported from April 17 to 23, which averaged 450 infections per day.
There were 22 additional severe and critical cases during the past week, but no deaths were reported.
The officer-in-charge of the DOH said that despite the rise in the number of cases, the good news is that healthcare utilization for COVID-19 is only below 20 percent which means that only a few people are getting hospitalized for the disease.
The OCTA Research group said the positivity rate in the National Capital Region (NCR) is currently on track to see its third highest recorded positivity rate.
Positivity rate is the percentage of people, who test positive for the virus, out of the overall number of those who have been tested.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has set the COVID-19 positivity rate threshold at five percent.
In a television interview, OCTA fellow Guido David said they are projecting that Metro Manila’s positivity rate will reach 25 percent, from the 19.7 percent as of May 2, by next week.
“I hope it doesn’t. These are just projection,” said David.
David said that the highest positivity rate in the NCR was in January 2022 “when we reached more than 50 percent positivity rate with the Omicron variant.”
The second highest was 25 percent when the Delta variant hit the country in 2021.
“This (current positivity rate) might be on track to be the second or third highest wave in the NCR,” David said.
However, he admitted that the situation may not be as bad as the Delta wave as majority of the cases are not severe and critical.
“The difference is a lot of cases are not severe. We still have severe cases. The hospitals will not be overloaded but many people will still catch the virus,” said David.
In a brief statement, the DOH reiterated the rising positivity rate does not serve as an accurate indicator of the current trend in Metro Manila.
“The positivity rate is not the sole criterion in monitoring our COVID-19 situation. There are many factors or measures to consider as to an area’s increase in COVID-19 cases,” said the DOH.
It also stressed that the changes in the country’s testing protocols make it highly likely to have positive results.
“With the shift in testing protocols focused more on symptomatic individuals, the positivity rate is expected to increase because those tested are those most likely to be positive,” explained the DOH.
Because of the threat of NCR’s positivity rate hitting high percentage, David called on the national government to work on countering the growing complacency of the public against COVID-19.
“We should focus on bringing awareness back to the public. There is a lot of complacency. Many don’t believe COVID-19 is still a threat,” said David.
As to reviving the mask mandate, he believes that it is already up to the local governments if they want to bring back the policy or not.
“Generally, we should know already how to protect ourselves,” added David.
BIVALENT VACCINES
Vergeire told lawmakers that the DOH has no authority to procure bivalent COVID-19 vaccines, which targets Omicron and its subvariants, since there is no law authorizing it.
She said this is the reason why the country is just relying on donated bivalent vaccines expected to arrive by the end of the month.
“We just like to mention and emphasize that we did all things possible. Unfortunately, procurement is a non-option for us right now because of the existing laws in the country,” Vergeire told Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, a senior vice chair of the panel, who said Congress is open to passing such a law.
Vergeire explained that the DOH has lost the basis to procure the vaccines because the state of calamity ended last December 31, which made the COVID-19 vaccination law invalid.
She however said that the procurement of such vaccines outside of a declaration of a state of calamity is provided under the bill establishing Center for Disease Control (CDC), which President Marcos has already certified as urgent, and was approved on final reading by the House of Representatives.
Vergeire also told the panel that it would take as long as 12 to 23 years for the country to address the shortage of nurses and doctors with the way things are going now.
She said the country needs an additional 178,000 nurses and 114,000 physicians but it only produces 10,645 nurses and 4,387 physicians annually “so it would take 12 years for the nurses and 23 years for physicians.”
