OCTA: Philippines’ daily new COVID-19 cases could breach 20,000 a day

The number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in a day could reach 20,000 or more amid the existence of the more infectious Delta variant of coronavirus, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said Monday. 

“Since we reached 19,000 a day, it could increase to more than 20,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, given that our reproduction number is still greater than 1 [nationwide],” David said during the Laging Handa briefing. 

“But I don’t see it breaching 30,000,” he added. 

OCTA Research’s Professor Ranjit Rye, for his part, lamented that the COVID-19 vaccination program and compliance of minimum public health standards such as wearing of face mask, face shield and social distancing are being outpaced by the more infectious Delta variant. 

“When you get fully vaccinated, it takes six weeks for it to fully take effect. Delta’s transmission is faster than the effect of the vaccination. Delta variant is a big factor because it is highly contagious. It is really hard to manage, especially if there is no strict compliance with minimum public health standards,” Rye pointed out. 

“We really saw a decline in compliance of minimum public health standards. And so we suggest that people should stay home and if they need to go out to go to work, they should observe minimum public health standards,” he added. 

At least 13.8 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far, way behind the target of vaccinating 76.3 million Filipinos by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19. 

The Philippines reported 18,528 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, pushing the number of active cases in the country to 143,221.

This is the country's second-highest daily case count. On Saturday, a new all-time high of 19,441 new COVID-19 infections was recorded.

The Department of Health said the new cases brought the country's total COVID-19 case count to 1,954,023.

The DOH also said on Sunday said 516 more cases of the Delta variant were detected, bringing the total count of cases to 1,789. —KG, GMA News