Duque: No indication that there will be a lockdown after Eleksyon 2022

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Saturday said there is no indication that there will be a lockdown after Eleksyon 2022 due to a possible rise in the number of COVID-19 cases.

"Sa ngayon, walang indikasyon na magkakaroon ng lockdown matapos ang eleksyon," Duque said in an interview on Dobol B TV.

(As of now, there is no indication that there will be a lockdown after the elections.)

Duque said if needed, there will only be granular lockdowns and not a widespread lockdown.

"Kung magkakaroon man, granular lockdown na lamang. Tapos na tayo sa mga widespread lockdown," he said.

(If we will have lockdown, it will only be granular. We're done with widespread lockdown.)

"The increases in cases are not significant, although we should not be putting our guards down," National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) chairperson and Health Undersecretary Dr. Myrna Cabotaje meanwhile said at the Laging Handa briefing on Saturday.

She echoed Duque in saying only granular lockdowns will be implemented if there will be a COVID-19 surge after Eleksyon 2022.

Expected surge

The Philippines may experience another surge in COVID-19 infections by mid-May, with Metro Manila possibly recording as many as almost half a million active cases if minimum public health standards (MPHS) are ignored, the Department of Health (DOH) earlier warned.

It said a 50% decrease in the compliance of minimum public health standards in Metro Manila may result in 25,000 to 60,000 new COVID-19 cases per day by mid-May.

Meanwhile, a 20% decrease in MPHS compliance nationwide may lead to around 34,788 active COVID-19 cases, and a 30% decrease in MPHS compliance might increase the cases further, possibly to as high as 300,000, over the same period, the DOH said.

The OCTA Research group on Tuesday said it does not recommend the  reimposition of lockdowns despite projecting an increase in COVID-19 infections from 50,000 to 100,000 active cases soon.

At the Laging Handa briefing on Saturday, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Butch Ong reported that the National Capital Region's reproduction number — which refers to the number of people infected by one case — is at 0.71.

"It slightly increased yet it is still not alarming. Our daily new cases are below 200," Ong said.

The DOH on Friday logged 184 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country’s caseload to 3,685,403.

Based on the DOH’s latest data, the active infections dropped from 9,585 on Thursday to 8,389 on Friday.

Duque said the positivity rate is at 1.3. The positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who were found positive for COVID-19 among the total number of individuals tested.

BA.2.12 variant

Meanwhile, Duque said there is no need to worry about the BA.2.12 subvariant of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as it has not been identified by the World Health Organization as a variant of interest or variant of concern.

"Wala pang dapat ipangamba sa BA.2.12 dahil hindi naman ito natukoy ng WHO bilang variant of interest at variant of concern," he said on Dobol B TV on Saturday.

(There is no need to worry about BA.2.12 because the WHO has not classified it as a variant of interest and variant of concern.)

The DOH earlier said the first case of Omicron BA.2.12 was detected in Baguio City in a 52-year-old Finnish female who arrived from Finland last April 2.

However, the Philippine Genome Center on Friday said no onward transmission of the COVID-19 Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12 was detected in the country since then.

"We support the IATF's [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] move on the alert levels because they are evidence-based and grounded on the data reported. But we will monitor the new subvariants of the Omicron found in other countries," Ong said.

"We will monitor the trend in the next week. We could not tell yet if there will be massive increase in cases, but for now, the situation is under control," Ong added.

Booster

Duque then encouraged the public to have their booster shots against COVID-19 and not wait for a surge in cases to do so.

"Dapat magpa-booster na ngayon at 'wag nang hintayin pa na magkaroon ng surge bago magpa-booster," he said.

(One should have a booster shot [of the COVID-19 vaccine] now and not wait for a surge in cases before having it.) —with a report from Jamil Santos/KG, GMA News