MANILA, Philippines — People’s failure to comply with minimum health protocols contributed to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in the country, the Department of Health said Monday.
For three straight days, health authorities have reported over 3,000 COVID-19 cases, bringing to 594,412 the total number of infections in the Philippines. Of these, 36,043 were active cases.
The DOH said the average number of COVID-19 cases increased to 2,400 last week from only 1,000 to 1,200 from late December to early January, when the country was anticipating a post-holiday surge in infections.
“The underlying cause of why cases are increasing is because of the non-compliance [with] the health protocols that we have,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.
“As long as our public will not be able to comply with minimum health protocols that are there, the interventions, the possibility that case will rise remains,” she added in a mix of English and Filipino.
In a separate interview with CNN Philippines, Vergeire refused to call the recent rise in COVID-19 cases the “second wave” of infections.
“We would like to veer away from classifying this marked increase in cases as having a surge or having a second wave. What we’re saying right now there’s a marked increase in the number of cases and people have to be very cautious and local governments have to step up with their response,” she said.
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Quarantine fatigue
A sociologist from the University of Santo Tomas earlier said the decreasing compliance with health measures against COVID-19 may be attributed to fatigue or social confusion from all dynamics of the pandemic situation “from inner and personal to social belief.” Community quarantines in the Philippines began in March last year.
“One possible reason for this fatigue or social confusion is the economic aspect of compliance. People prioritize the need in food and basic requirements instead of face masks, alcohol and face shields,” Froilan Alipao told Philstar.com last October.
“Another, there is low compliance in urban poor communities because of their limited space and economic capacity. The context itself is not favorable for full compliance,” he added.
Presence of variants
In its latest forecast, the OCTA Research Group said new COVID-19 cases in the country could reach as high as 6,000 a day by end-March. The researchers said the “surge may be driven” by more contagious variants.
But the DOH official stressed the spike in COVID-19 cases “cannot be solely attributed” to the presence of more transmissible coronavirus variants in the country.”
The presence of variants, however, “aggravated this increase in cases,” Vergeire said.
Local authorities have so far detected 58 cases of B.1.351, or the variant that was first seen in South Africa. Aside from being more infectious than other variants, it may also have an impact on vaccine efficacy.
Meanwhile, 118 cases of B.1.1.7, or the variant first identified in the United Kingdom, were reported in the country.
“We don’t want to sow fear among the people that the reason why there’s an increase in cases is due to the new variants. We’re seeing the trends and with our observation there has been a lapse with our compliance with minimum health protocols,” Vergeire said.
She also said there is still no community transmission of the more transmissible variants in the Philippines as authorities are still further studying these cases.
‘Manageable levels’
Vergeire also said that all hospitals in the country are capable of managing the increase in COVID-19 cases.
“To say the system is overwhelmed, no. If you look at our healthcare utilization, we’re still at that manageable level. We still have almost 50% which we can provide,” she said.
Officials said the government is not yet considering imposing more stringent community quarantine measures, noting that localized responses such as granular lockdowns are the most appropriate strategies at the moment.
Metro Manila and neighboring areas reverted back to modified enhanced community quarantine in August last year after exhausted medical frontliners, who warned a collapse of the healthcare system, called for a “timeout.”
For the whole month of March, Metro Manila, Apayao, Baguio City, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Batangas, Tacloban City, Iligan City, Davao City and Lanao del Sur are under general community quarantine. The rest of the country, meanwhile, is placed under the laxest quarantine status—modified GCQ.
“If we comply with minimum health protocols, we can control the increase in the number of cases and therefore, we can be able to manage the increase of variants in the country. We can also prevent further mutations of this virus,” Vergeire said.