NCR alert level may further deescalate if cases decrease to 500 —DOH

The Alert Level 2 currently in effect over the National Capital Region may further deescalate should the country’s COVID-19 infections decrease to 500 per day, the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.

At the Laging Handa briefing, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the de-escalation of the alert level will depend on the data.

“Kung ang datos ay patuloy naman na bumababa, halimbawa kahapon nasa 2,000, a little over 2,000 lang tayo. So posible na kapag below 1,000 tayo or 500 per day ay baka puwede natin ibaba pa hanggang Alert Level 1,” he said.

(If the numbers will continue to go down, for example, we had a little over 2,000 yesterday. So it’s possible that if it’s below 1,000 or 500 per day, we may go down to Alert Level 1.)

On Monday, the Philippines reported 2,087 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nationwide tally to 2,805,294 and active cases to 32,077.

Duque said lowering the alert level will allow more sectors to open up.

“Sino ba naman ang may ayaw na mas mababa ang ating alert level (Who doesn’t want to lower our alert level)?” Duque said.

“Mas malaking bahagi ng ekonomiya ang ating mabubuksan at mas marami din tayong mababawing mga trabahong nawala. At ang sigla ng ekonomiya ay manumbalik at ang normal ay bumalik din sa buhay ng bawat Pilipino,” he added.

(A bigger portion of our economy will open up and we will regain more jobs. The economy will return and the lives of every Filipino will return to normal.)

NCR will be under Alert Level 2 from November 5 until November 21.

NCR 7-day average

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said NCR has recorded a seven-day average daily case count of 385.

“That is very good news for us because these are the numbers that we had been seeing since the start of the year before the increase in cases happened,” Vergeire said in an interview on CNN.

However, she warned that this should not lead to complacency.

“I would just like to advise our public not to be complacent because of this. because easily, this number of cases can immediately rise if there would be superspreader events,” she said.

Meanwhile, the independent monitoring group OCTA Research projected that average cases in the region may decrease to 200 by the end of November.

388 new cases on 11.8.21 pushed the 7-day average in the NCR to just 385, lowest since Feb 13. Projections based on current trends are shown in red. If trends continue, we may see less than 200 per day in the NCR by end of November. @dzbb @allangatus @DZAR1026 @dzrhnews @NewsRmn pic.twitter.com/CwPnIUexAd

— Dr. Guido David (@iamguidodavid) November 8, 2021

“Based on current trends, the projected number of cases are shown in red. If this trend continues, we expect cases in the NCR to average less than 200 per day by the end of November,” OCTA said.

“But we must continue to observe minimum public health standards,” it added.

The reproduction number—the number of people who may be infected by one case—in NCR was recorded at 0.38, OCTA said. —KG, GMA News