The Department of Health (DOH) said Covid-19 cases in the country may continue to increase in the next weeks due to higher transmissibility of the Delta variant and active case finding in granular lockdown areas.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the country is still at high-risk classification.
Twelve regions are also at high-risk case classification.
Majority of regions are under moderate to high-risk health systems capacity.
However, she noted that there is a slowing down of active cases in NCR Plus Areas.
Vergeire said that over 51 percent of active cases come from other provinces while 111 (92 percent) of provinces, highly urbanized cities , and independent component cities remain under Alert Level 3 and 4; of which, 79 (71 percent) with bed or ICU utilization at over 70 percent to full capacity.
“Current case data in NCR (National Capital Region) and Bulacan is lower than the initial FASSSTER projections, signalling possible effect of the national and local response. But other areas continue to have increase in cases consistent with the case projections,” Vergeire said in an online media forum.
“Based on initial analysis, most severe and critical cases are unvaccinated,” Vergeire added.
Covid cases
As of August 31, the DOH recorded 13,827 additional Covid -19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 1,989,857. There were 16,759 recoveries and 118 deaths.
Of the total number of infections, 7.3 percent (145,562) are active, 91.0 percent (1,810,847) have recovered, and 1.68 percent (33,448) have died.
The DOH said that the relatively low number of cases reported, after the largest single-day Covid tally of 22,366 new cases on Monday, is due to lower laboratory output last Sunday. Lower number of samples from disease reporting units or loval government units are also being observed during Sundays.
For Aug 30, the DOH said that top regions with new cases are: 1. NCR – 5,588 2. Region 4A – 4,942 3. Region 3 – 2,885 4. Region 6 – 1,174 5. Region 1 – 1,153
Top areas of new cases: 1. Cavite – 1,922 2. Laguna – 1,405 3. Bulacan – 898 4. Quezon City – 888 5. Rizal – 814
Meanwhile, the average daily reported cases are : August 24 – 30: 17,013; August 17 – 23: 14,886; Augudt 10 – 16: 12,818; August 3 – 9: 8,927 and; Previous Peak (March 29-April 4): 10,431.
Increase in cases
“Steep increase in new cases is seen in the recent week. New peak continues to increase,” Vergeire said.
She also said that additional cases were identified with increased active case finding, contact tracing, and testing.
Comparing August 22-28 to August 1-7, the average tests per day increased to 67,692 (20 percent) from 56,179 in the 1sy week of August while the national positivity rate to increased to 26.3 percent from 18.6 percent.
Meanwhile, compared to March-April, current increase was observed in all island groups when it comes to confirmed cases.
“NCR Plus and rest of Luzon had faster case increase than Visayas and Mindanao,” she said.
With this, the DOH official said that strict enforcement of minimum public health standards especially in areas or activities included in 3C’s: closed, crowded, close contacts is needed.
She said that active case finding and immediate isolation in granular lockdown areas should also be strengthened.
The following should also be continued:
- Ongoing augmentation of health system capacity and transfer of asymptomatic/mild cases to community facilities
- Monitoring of cases and healthcare utilization for adjustments in policy and response
- Implementation of border control restrictions and policies
- Coordination among national and local governments
- Provision of up-to-date information to the public
Image courtesy of Nonie Reyes