Gov’t says still too early to assume Omicron cases have peaked
THE National Capital Region (NCR), the epicenter of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Philippines, is now on the road to continued improvement, the independent OCTA Research said yesterday.
The group’s latest data showed Metro Manila already on a “downward trajectory” in terms of its COVID-19 cases and virus transmission.
“The pattern is very similar to the South Africa experience of a rapid surge followed by a dramatic decrease in infections,” said OCTA.
According to OCTA fellow Guido David, the 8,376 new COVID-19 cases reported in the NCR on January 19 marked the first time Metro Manila had less than 10,000 cases in a single day since January 5 when cases started to spike, which health experts have attributed to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
David also noted how the reproduction number in the NCR has decreased to 1.79 compared to 4.24 just a week ago.
David also said the present weekly growth rate in Metro Manila of negative 10 percent was the first time in the negative zone for NCR since December 24, 2021.
Despite this, David pointed that Metro Manila remains at “critical risk” classification.
“Residents are advised not to be complacent and still comply strictly with minimum public health standards so as not to prolong the surge of infections,” said David.
National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 adviser Ted Herbosa said that while the spread of the disease has slowed down in the capital region, it is still too early to relax and conclude that the Omicron variant has already reached its peak, especially in Metro Manila,
In an interview with GMA News’ Unang Balita, Herbosa said patients recently infected with the deadly virus may show signs of complications or other symptoms in the coming days.
“It is difficult to say that this is already a downward trend. Although there is a negative growth and it went down fast in the past two days, we cannot relax yet. We are still cautious,” Herbosa said.
The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday reported 31,173 new COVID cases nationwide, two days after the country recorded less than 30,000 single cases.
Herbosa said the government and health authorities will continue to evaluate COVID indicators, particularly the growth rate, average daily attack rate and hospitalization rates in the country, to track the pandemic’s trend.
ALERT LEVEL 4
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles yesterday said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has approved the escalation to Alert Level 4 of Kalinga, Ifugao and Mountain Province in the Cordillera Administrative Region, as well as the province of Northern Samar, effective today until January 31.
The IATF likewise placed under Alert Level 3 the province of Apayao, Puerto Princesa City and Masbate in Luzon; Siquijor in Visayas; and Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay in Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9), Lanao del Norte in Northern Mindanao (Region 10), Davao de Oro and Davao Oriental in Davao Region (Region 11); North Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat in SOCCSKSARGEN (Region 12); Surigao del Norte in Caraga, and Maguindanao and Basilan in BARMM
The alert level is effective beginning today until the end of the month.
HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said some hospitals had started to see a drop in hospital confinement and emergency room confinements.
Galvez, at yesterday’s “Resbakuna sa Botika” launch in Pasig City, said that during his visit to St. Luke’s last week, he was informed that patient admission due to COVID, particularly Omicron variant cases, have already started to decline.
“We hope it (declining admission) continues but we should not be too confident and complacent, we know that Omicron is very contagious,” he said.
He also said the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) is also seeing lower emergency room admission.
Herbosa said that from having more than 300 patients at one time, the PGH now only has more than 60 cases.
In Davao City, private hospitals have started reactivating their COVID-19 beds amid a surge of infections in the city.
Dr. Michelle Schlosser, spokesperson of the Davao City Task Force COVID-19, said the city recorded a record high 1,197 new infections on Wednesday.
Schlosser said private hospitals had to reactivate COVID-19 beds because the Southern Philippines Medical Center is already overwhelmed with patients infected with the deadly virus.
“We are reactivating the private hospitals to admit COVID positive patients,” said Schlosser, adding among the private hospitals that reactivated COVID-19 beds are the Davao Doctors Hospital, Brokenshire Integrated Health Ministries Inc, San Pedro Hospital of Davao City Inc, and Anda Riverview Medical Center Inc.
“Here in Davao, we are reactivating or we are working on reactivating the bed capacity of (private) hospitals,” said Schlosser.
Schlosser also said medical personnel of the hospitals were among those who have contracted the disease.
She said the city had been on a one-digit daily case before the Christmas holidays. “This (surge) actually started after the holidays, right after the holidays,” she said, adding the surge was expected. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Victor Reyes
