ABOUT 91 percent of areas in the country have been seeing increases in the number of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, the Department of Health said yesterday.
“Sustained case uptrend is observed in most regions with majority (91%) of provinces, HUCs (highly urbanized cities), and ICCs (independent component cities) showing case increases over the recent weeks,” the DOH said in its July 5 COVID-19 National Situationer Report
It said the national average daily cases went up to 1,103 for the period of June 28 to July 4, from 711 for the period of June 21 to 27.
“National case trend shows continuous increase, now averaging more than 1,000 cases/day in the recent week,” said the DOH.
“National and all regions continue to show increases in cases,” it added.
The health department said Metro Manila and five other regions now have positivity rates of greater than 5 percent, the threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
It said the national weekly positivity rate increased to 6.8 percent, while the National Capital Region (NCR) registered a weekly positivity rate of 9.3 percent.
Also, the Cordillera Administrative Region, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, and Western Visayas have positivity rates above 5 percent.
But despite the surging number in COVID-19 cases, the DOH said the entire country remains at “low risk” COVID-19 classification because of the low number of average daily attack rates (ADAR) and health care utilization rate (HCUR) in all regions.
“National and all regions remain at low-risk case classification with average daily attack rates at low risk (0.82), while health care utilization rates also at low risk in all regions (19.45%),” the DOH said.
OMICRON CASES
The DOH said it detected 70 additional cases of the COVID-19 Omicron subvariant.
It said that in the genome sequencing run from June 29 to July 4, there were 43 BA.5 cases, 20 BA.2.12.1 cases, and 7 BA.4 cases were detected in the country.
It said that 42 out of the 43 BA.5 cases, 16 of the 20 BA.2.12.1 cases, and all seven BA.4 cases are locally detected. On the other hand, 4 BA.2.12.1 and 1 BA.5 case involved returning overseas Filipinos.
Among the BA.2.12.1 cases, 17 have recovered, while three are being verified.
For the BA.4 cases, six have recovered, while one is undergoing verification.
And for the BA.5 cases, 38 of them have recovered, while five others are being verified.
The DOH said that out of the 211 samples sequenced in the latest batch, there were 190 cases of the Omicron variant.
The 120 other Omicron variant cases belonged to its other lineages and subvariants.
“This brings the total number of confirmed Omicron cases to 7,919,” said the DOH.
CAPABLE
President Marcos Jr. expressed confidence the country is capable enough to handle the COVID-19 pandemic now, including its more transmissible variants and sub-variants, compared to about two years ago when it surfaced.
He also said while new variants like Omicron are coming out, the public has learned how to live with coronavirus.
The country has about 10,000 active COVID-19 cases, with an average of 1,057 cases recorded daily in the past week, which the DOH said was “60 percent higher” than those reported from June 20 to 26.
The country’s total is 3.7 million COVID cases.
“If we look at where we started, we still have the capability to handle the new COVID cases,” Marcos said in his first press conference as president. “Luckily, we should not look at the number of COVID cases in the same way as we look at them in 2020 and 2021 because this is Omicron. Omicron is very different. It is a little contagious, but it does not hit as hard,” he said.
He said Omicron affects individuals for only two to three days unlike the earlier variants Alpha and Delta.
“That’s like flu. That’s like having flu,” he said.
Marcos again emphasized the importance of getting a third dose or booster shot to increase one’s protection against the new variants.
With Omicron, he said, a third dose or booster those is needed. “We will be encouraging that especially for younger people because again, we have to be concerned about their return to school,” he said.
He added that as a general policy, he “will reinstitute again the vaccination drive so we could at least feel safer when the children go back to school.”
The government plans to have a 100 percent face-to-face class in schools by November.
As of end June, around 3.2 million children aged five to 11 years have been fully vaccinated while more than 9.5 million 12 to 18 years old are fully vaccinated.
A total of 70.78 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated, with 15.15 million given booster shots.
Meanwhile, an infectious disease expert urged drug companies to apply for a certificate of product registration (CPR) for their vaccines.
“It looks like COVID-19 will be here to stay and become endemic. So to continue the protection, we need these vaccines,” Dr. Edsel Salvaña said in a briefing.
Currently, all COVID-19 vaccines are using the emergency use authorization issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Salvaña said having the CPRs granted to drug manufacturers will ensure that COVID-19 vaccines will be readily available in the Philippines.
“We need to incorporate the COVID-19 vaccine to the other vaccines provided by the government as these vaccines against COVID-19 are needed to continue giving protection against severe diseases and dying,” he said.
In addition, he said having CPRs will make the vaccine available in the local market and improve its accessibility.
“Aside from the government, the private sector will have its share of the burden. It will help motivate the people to get jabbed because they trust their own doctors,” said Salvaña.
He expressed confidence that vaccine makers will not have difficulty getting CPRs from the FDA, especially those given CPRs in the United States, such as Pfizer and Moderna. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
