Philippines' COVID-19 infections easing —DOH

The Department of Health (DOH) is now seeing a decline in the Philippines' COVID-19 infections, an official said Thursday.

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire made the remark when asked if the department agrees with infectious diseases expert Dr. Rontgene Solante that the National Capital Region (NCR) has already surpassed the wave of infections of the Omicron BA.5 and BA.4 subvariants.

“Based sa statement ni Dr. Solante, gusto natin klaruhin I think he's talking about yung pagtaas ng kaso because of the Omicron infection in this past months that happened,” Vergeire told reporters in a press briefing in Cavite.

(Based on his statement, we want to clarify that he’s talking about the increase in cases due to the Omicron infection in the past months.)

“I think we started off in June, July, August, kung saan tumataas ang mga kaso at sa tingin natin pababa na 'yung mga kaso kaya sinasabi ni Dr. Solante, we are past that surge,” she said.

(I think we started off in June, July, and August when the infections rose, and now the cases are declining. That's why he said we’re past the surge.)

“We're seeing that our cases are plateauing in Mindanao. Our cases in the Visayas are slowly decreasing already although nagka-uptick tayo in the past days. But here in the NCR and the Luzon area, tuloy-tuloy na ang pagbaba ng mga kaso (the cases are continuously declining) ,” Vergeire added.

On Thursday, Solante said in a public briefing that the NCR had “passed the worst” of the Omicron surge which resulted in the easing of infections.

He answered this when asked about the factors could have contributed to the NCR’s COVID-19 positivity rate decreasing to 7.8%, as reported by OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David on Wednesday.

With the decrease in cases, Vergeire asked the public to make an “informed decision” to prevent the transmission of the virus, saying the current protocols on COVID-19 will be unchanged.

“Base sa alert level systems natin na halos lahat ng local government units ay nasa Alert Level 1 na, wala tayong restrictions as to age or maybe the capacity kaya tayo ay nagpapalala na sana tayo na mismo sa sarili magkaroon ng ‘informed decision’ kung kailan tayo pupunta sa isang pagtitipon na maraming tao. Kailangan alam natin kung ano yung mga preventive measures na gagawin natin,” she added.

(Based on our alert level systems wherein almost all LGUs are under Alert Level1, there are no restrictions as to age or maybe capacity that’s why we’re reminding the public to have an ‘informed decision’ on when to go to gatherings and know  the preventive measures.)

The Philippines logged 1,267 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, increasing the nationwide tally to 4,014,039. Active infections are at 16,526.

Meanwhile, Vergeire said uptake on booster vaccination remains low.

Latest data from the DOH showed over 165 million doses have been administered in the Philippines. Of these, over 70 million are first doses while more than 20 million are for booster doses.

As for the second booster, the health official said around 4% or 3.4 million out of the 20.7 million eligible population have availed of the jabs to date.

“Sa ngayon ang ating second booster doses ang percentage is 4.4% of the eligible population. Ang eligible po natin for the second boosters would be around 20.7 million. Ang nakakapagbakuna pa lang ay 3.4 million.  That's just around 4%,” she said.

(Right now, our second booster dose percentage is at 4.4%of the eligible population. Those eligible are at 20.7 million. Those who availed are at 3.4 million.  That's just around 4%.)

“Kung anumang challenges ang nakikita natin sa first booster natin sa pagpapatupad, ganon din sa 2nd booster…We're trying to intensify all of these but basically ang focus ng ating campaign is the first booster shot, which is the most important for all of us right now,” she added.

(We’re seeing the same challenges we saw in the implementation of the first booster. We're trying to intensify all of these but basically, the focus of the campaign is the first booster shot, which is the most important for all of us right now.)—LDF, GMA News