NTF adviser: Philippines’ COVID-19 daily rate still below 200 due to good vaccination rate

National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 medical adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa on Friday said the COVID-19 daily rate in the country is still below 200 due to the good vaccination rate against the viral disease.

At the Laging Handa briefing, Herbosa said although there were several areas under Alert Level 2 and some areas that reported increase in cases, the country’s COVID-19 daily rate is still low.

“Mayroon pa rin tayong mga lugar na nasa Alert Level 2. As of yesterday, sa report ang daily rate ng buong bansa ay still nasa below 200 so mababa pa rin. Although may areas na may pagtaas, tulad ng sa Puerto Princesa, may na-report noong isang araw na 15 turista na nagpositibo medyo mataas yon pero noong sumunod na araw, zero,” he said.

(We still have areas that are at Alert Level 2. As of yesterday, the report of the daily rate of the whole country is still below 200 so it is still low. Although there are areas with an increase, such as in Puerto Princesa, it was reported the other day that 15 tourists tested positive for a relatively high level but the next day, zero cases were recorded.)

The Department of Health (DOH) earlier reported that among the 15 fully vaccinated foreign travelers in Palawa, 13 were asymptomatic while the two others started showing mild symptoms on April 27 and 28.

“Ganun din sa iba’t ibang lugar na binabantayan natin nasa Alert Level 2 pa. Tuloy naman 'yung pagbaba. Ang thinking ko ay dahil ito sa ating very good vaccination rate,” he said.

(The same goes for the various areas that we are monitoring under Alert Level 2. There is a continuous decline in COVID-19 infections. I think this is because of our very good vaccination rate.)

Herbosa said at least 68.3 million Filipinos have already received their second dose which is 76% of the target population. Meanwhile, 72.9 million individuals have received their first dose which is 80% of the target.

“At pagtinignan mo naman yung kahit may one dose lang yung 72.9 million ang mayroon ng at least one dose ito ay 80% [of the target]. Ito ay palagay ko ang rason  kung bakit hindi tayo nakakakita ng mga muling pagtaas ng kaso sa ating bansa at kung mayroon man ito ay sa mga lugar na below 50% yung vaccination rate,” he said.

(And if you look at it even though 72.9 million have only one dose this is 80% of the target population. I think this is the reason why we do not see an increase in the number of cases in our country and if there are, it would be in areas below 50% vaccination rate.)

“Ito ay nasa region sa Visayas at Mindanao, I think sa Luzon sa Mimaropa at sa Bicol yung mga may konting binabantayan kami,” he added.

(These were in the Visayas and Mindanao regions, I think in Luzon, in Mimaropa and in Bicol, those areas we were currently monitoring.)

The Philippines on Thursday recorded 168 new COVID-19 infections, increasing the nationwide caseload to 3,686,543. The new infections brought the country's active case count to 4,694.

The Health Department said a total of 3,621,410 patients recovered from the viral disease, while the number of deaths climbed to 60,439. — RSJ, GMA News