Philippines, NCR, 8 other regions at moderate risk for COVID-19

The Philippines has remained at moderate risk classification for COVID-19, the Department of Health said Monday.

In President Rodrigo Duterte's weekly Talk to the People, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the average daily attack rate in the country has dropped to 11.35% cases per every 100,000 individuals in the recent two weeks from January 25, 2022 to February 07, 2022.

The National Capital Region, Caraga, Cordillera Administrative Region, Regions 6, 2, 7, 1, 4A, and 3 are also at moderate risk classification, while Regions 8, 5, 4B, and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are under low risk.

Meanwhile, Regions 11, 9, 12, and 10 remained at high risk classification.

Data from the DOH showed that the country's bed utilization was at 37.29%, merch vent utilization was at 21.08%, and ICU utilization was at 40.9%.

Omicron

Further, Duque said of the 9,536 total confirmed cases admissions as of February 6, 2022, a total of 1,030 or 11% are severe, 422 or 4% are critical, 1,124 or 12% are asymptomatic, and 3,082 or 32% are mild.

He said mild cases increased in early January but are now slowing down.

"Nagkakaroon po ulit tayo ng bahagyang pagtaas ng bilang ng mga pumapanaw bunsod ng COVID-19 at ito po mga 93% ay hindi bakunado," Duque added.

He also said there is "low incidence" of severe disease among Omicron cases and the case fatality rate was lower by at least 12 times versus other variants.

Of the 2,702 Omicron cases since mid-December, Duque said only six were severe and critical cases or 0.22%. Nine deaths were also recorded due to Omicron, which means the case fatality rate was at 0.33%.

"Whether ang Omicron variant is inherently milder virus, it is also possible that because of our higher vaccine trajectory is one of the reasons we're getting much lower case fatality rate for Omicron and also severe and critical cases," he said.—LDF, GMA News