The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported an increase in Covid-19 infections in many parts of the country.
In a media forum, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the increase in cases was observed mid-July after a slowdown in cases before.
As for July 28, 2021 the top regions of new cases are: National Capital Region (NCR) – 1,151, Region 4A – 701, Region 6 – 540, Region 1 – 334, Region 3 – 334, and Region 7 – 326 while top areas of new cases are: Quezon City – 282, Ilocos Norte – 258, Laguna – 239, Cavite – 237, and Cagayan – 209.
Vergeire said that nationally, the two-week growth rate (TWGR) is now seen to be positive with an increase in average daily attack rate (ADAR). The Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), Regions 6, and 11 at high risk ADAR while six regions seen to have trend reversal to positive TWGR.
In NCR, 11 areas have positive TWGR; Makati, Las Piñas, and Pasay at high risk ADAR; Las Piñas at critical risk utilization rate (ICUR) while Makati at high risk.
“For the whole of NCR, HCUR (health-care utilization rate) and ICUR trend still maintained at low risk levels but shows signs of increase in the recent days,” Vergeire said adding that ” All Plus Areas are showing a slow increase in cases.”
Upward trend was observed in Regions 1, 2, and 3, while a downward trend is seen in Region 4B and Region 5. Case trend in CAR and Region 4A is plateauing.
Vergeire said that a steep rise in cases is observed in Region 7, while case trend in Regions 6 and 8 are decreasing.
For Mindanao, upward trend is observed in Region 10, while Region 12 is plateauing. All other regions in Mindanao are exhibiting a decline in cases.
Vergeire also noted that deaths “now continually decreasing since end of June.”
With the reported detection of Delta and other variants of concern, Vergeire said that they recommend:
- Shorten detection to isolation/quarantine interval to less than 5 days.
- Facility isolation and quarantine have to be prioritized to prevent household transmission
- Health care capacities and systems have to be in place and readily accessed in preparation for case spikes
- Ramp up vaccination among A2 and A3 populations to reduce occurrence of more severe disease and fatalities
- Border control protocol at ALL ports of entry must be strictly enforced
- Continuous assessment of situation at all levels
- Intensify dissemination of information on the variants of concern and expected actions to be taken by individuals, establishments, and implementers
Covid cases
The DOH on Thursday logged 5,735 additional new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 1,572,287.
There were also 4,069 recoveries and 176 deaths.
Of the total number of cases, 3.6 percent (56,273) are active, 94.7 percent (1,488,437) have recovered, and 1.75 percent (27,577) have died.
The DOH said that 115 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 32 are recoveries.
Moreover, 182 cases previously tagged as recoveries have been validated to be active cases and 132 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
1 laboratory was not operational on July 27, 2021 but all remaining labs were able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
Based on data in the last 14 days, the 1 non-operational labs contributes, on average, 1.6 percent of samples tested and 1.1 percent of positive individuals.