WITH daily cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continuously climbing, the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday called on all local government units (LGUs) to help ensure that the minimum public health standards (MPHS) are strictly enforced in their respective jurisdictions.
In a televised public briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they have already coordinated with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) regarding the heightened vigilance over MPHS compliance.
MPHS include wearing of face masks, physical distancing, frequent handwashing, use of alcohol and hand sanitizers, and ensuring good airflow.
“Currently, we are already in talks with the DILG and local governments for the enhancement of their monitoring of the compliance and for the strict enforcement of the MPHS. We must continue (to be) vigilant against COVID-19. We need to adhere to MPHS because this is one way to protect ourselves,” said Vergeire.
Vergeire issued the call after the DOH noted how MPHS adherence has dropped by 21 percent over the past months.
“We have likely reached a point where everyone experiences burnout because of this very long pandemic,” she said as she pointed at the decline in MPHS adherence as one of the possible factors in the recent rise in COVID-19 infections.
But even as cases continue to climb nationwide, Vergeire reiterated that there is still no need to escalate the alert levels in the country because the average daily attack rate (ADAR) and healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) remains low nationwide.
“It (escalation) is unnecessary because we have our alert level matrix, where we can determine if we need to tighten up once more. But, for now, we don’t need to impose a lockdown anymore,” she said.
“Having new cases is already expected. As long as these are mild and moderate and asymptomatic cases, we can manage them. What is important is the hospitals can manage having low admission of cases,” she added.
Likewise, Vergeire said the five Metro Manila LGUs that were earlier placed under “moderate” risk classifications will be downgraded to “low” risk level because of the new matrix that the Inter Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) approved on Monday.
“They will go back to low-risk classification as their ADARs have not breached 6 (per 100,000 population) and their HCURs are less than 50%,” she said.
Over the weekend, the DOH placed Pasig City, San Juan City, Quezon City, Marikina City, and the municipality of Pateros under moderate risk due to their case growth rates.
‘UNLIKELY TO GO OVER 5K’
In a related development, OCTA Research fellow Guido David yesterday disputed the projections of the health department on the number of daily COVID-19 cases by the end of July.
In a series of social media posts, David said disagreed with the projection that the country would see 12,451 to 22,187 daily cases by the end of July.
“We don’t foresee cases rising this high based on the trends and experiences of countries, which had infections of Omicron,” said David, adding: “An increase in cases (will) not (be) up to the level of the past surges, at least based on our projections.”
At most, David said OCTA believes that cases may only jump up to less than 5,000 per day.
“It seems unlikely the case load will exceed 5K per day at the peak of this weak surge,” said David.
On Tuesday, the DOH said COVID-19 cases nationwide may jump to as high as over 22,000 by the end of July based on their current projections.
As of June 26, the DOH has recorded 848 average daily infections in country.
The DOH said such a jump in cases may happen dependent on the public’s adherence to minimum health protocols.
