PRESS Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles yesterday said President Marcos has extended “possibly for three months” the nationwide state of calamity due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic to sustain ongoing government efforts related to the pandemic.
Cruz-Angeles made the announcement as the country comes closer to the realization of its so-called “wall of immunity” against COVID-19 and following the President’s decision to allow the voluntary use of face masks outdoors.
She said the state of calamity is extended to allow, among other things, the continued procurement of vaccines and the release of indemnifications and special risk allowance to health care workers.
Cruz-Angeles said government data showed that the country is now “6 percent away from the wall of immunity.”
The government has initially targeted to fully vaccinate 70 percent of the eligible population or around 70 million but later raised it to 90 percent of the population or around 90 million people. Before the term of former President Duterte ended, the government had targeted to reach a wall of immunity or fully vaccinate around 90 percent of the targeted population, or around 77 million.
The National COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard showed that 72.77 million Filipinos are already fully vaccinated, while 70.2 million have received their first dose. More than 18.55 million have also received their first booster, while 2.5 million have received their second booster shot as of September 11.
“We are happy to announce that we are 6 percent away from the wall of immunity, that is why we are confident about the face masks. Now, congruent to that as well, the state of calamity is extended for possibly three months, but only for the purpose of preserving the benefits under it, such as but not limited to the… indemnification, emergency procurement, special risk allowance for health care workers,” Cruz-Angeles said.
She said a continuous review will be done by the government to determine if the state of calamity will already be lifted.
“We will transition out of the state of calamity after further review,” she said
Marcos had initially said that he is inclined to extend the state of calamity by six months.
Duterte on March 16, 2020, through Proclamation No. 929, placed the country under a state of national calamity for six months due to COVID-19.
In September 2020, he extended the status for one year under Proclamation No.1021. It was extended for a third time through Proclamation No.1218 until September 12, 2022 (Monday) “unless earlier lifted or extended as circumstances may warrant”.
CASES DOWNTREND
The number of new COVID-19 cases reported daily over the past seven days has further declined and is now just above the 2,000-mark, the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday reported.
The DOH’s COVID-19 case bulletin showed an average of 2,197 cases daily for the period of September 5 to 11, or a total of 15,379 cases.
This is 10 percent lower than cases reported from August 29 to September 4.
The DOH report showed there were 12 additional severe and critical case during the past week, while 300 patients died.
The DOH said that there are now 727 severe and critical COVID-19 cases in the country, as of September 11. Of this, 594 of are occupying intensive care unit (ICU) beds, or 23.9 percent of the 2,485 total nationwide.
On the other hand, there are 5,925 patients who are occupying COVID-19 beds, or 28.2 percent of the 21,020 total beds allocated nationwide.
‘UPTICK’
The independent OCTA Research said the National Capital Region (NCR) and more areas are projected to see upticks in COVID-19 cases in the coming months as more people are expected to go out during the “ber” months.
“My general guess would be… We think that cases will continue to rise over the next few weeks with mobility being the same. We might expect mobility to increase further during the ‘ber’ months. We might expect uptick and spikes in cases over the next months,” David said.
David, though, said that the rise in cases is not likely to reach “alarming” levels.
On Sunday, OCTA reported that NCR is currently seeing a slow uptick in COVID-19 cases as it noted increasing trends in the region’s growth rate, reproduction number, and positivity rate.
So far, David said they are not yet seeing uptick in cases in other parts of the country, except in Rizal “where increases are much more significant.”
OCTA data showed that Rizal’s one week growth rate stood at 47 percent, while its average cases grew from 84 (August 29 – September 4) to 124 (September 5 to 11).
The reproduction number also increased from 0.90 (as of September 1), to 1.25 (as of September 8).
David also said the positivity rate in Rizal increased from 12.0 percent (as of September 3) to 17.4 percent (as of September 10).
“We are not yet sure what is happening in Rizal. It’s better to wait for more data and information so we can have a better picture of what is happening there,” said David. — With Gerard Naval
