AMID concerns over the reemergence of COVID-19), the Department of Health yesterday said the country remains at “low risk” from the disease as the number of cases remains low.
It said the average number of daily reported COVID-19 cases for the week of May 14 to 20 is 202.
It is less than half compared to around 500 a day at the start of 2024, and way below than the 1,750 per day seen a year ago, the DOH said.
It also noted that nationwide, only 14 percent or 1,435 out of 10,356 COVID-19 beds nationwide, and only 12 percent (141 out of 1,155) of dedicated COVID-19 ICU beds are occupied.
The DOH reiterated there is still no scientific basis for travel restrictions to any country because of COVID-19.
“The Bureau of Quarantine is (instead) keeping close watch over points of entry nationwide, as demonstrated by the latest instructions for heightened screening,” said the DOH.
Domestically, it said mandatory use of face masks remain unnecessary.
“The voluntary use of face masks should be done properly, along with standard precautions like hand washing, avoiding crowds, and choosing good airflow,” said the DOH.
The DOH also said it is now presuming that “FLiRT” variants of COVID-19 are already in the Philippine even as genome sequencing activities are ongoing at the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
“Whether or not sequencing shows variants flagged by global health agencies, the DOH assumes the flagged Omicron subvariants (i.e. KP.2, KP.3) are already likely here,” it said.
It said there is still no evidence that the KP.2 and KP.3 variants are causing severe to critical COVID-19. It said further assessment is necessary to determine transmissibility and capacity to evade immune response of the said subvariants.
To note, the KP.2 and KP.3 variants are considered as variants under monitoring by the World Health Organization.
