Philippines now 'high risk' for COVID-19 — DOH
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines was again deemed as “high risk” for COVID-19, the Department of Health said Monday, following a continued increase in infections.
“Nationally, we are now at high risk case classification from low risk case classification in the previous week, showing a positive two-week growth rate of 222% and moderate risk average daily attack rate of 1.07 cases for every 100,000 individuals,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.
Despite the increase in cases, the healthcare utilization rate across the country remained at low risk, with only 18% of the total beds utilized. Meanwhile, 22% percent of beds in intensive care units were occupied.
Metro Manila was also classified as “high risk” for the virus, Vergeire said. The capital region had an 813% growth rate in cases and an average daily attack rate of 5.42 per 100,000 people over the last two weeks.
The healthcare utilization in Metro Manila remained low.
The capital region is placed under Alert Level 3 until January 15 amid a sharp rise in case.
According to the health official, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao and Davao region also registered positive one-week and two-week growth rates.
“These regions are at low to moderate risk classification. The rest of the regions showed positive increase in cases only in the recent one week,” Vergeire said.
The Philippines is seeing a renewed spike in cases, which authorities have attributed to increased mobility during the holiday season and lax compliance to health protocols.
Omicron transmission
The transmission of the highly contagious Omicron variant in communities is “assumed” even if health authorities have yet to confirm it through genome sequencing, Vergeire said.
“Based on our current observation, our assumption is it’s now in the community because we have seen a sudden increase in the number of cases,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The Philippines has so far detected three local cases and 11 imported cases of the Omicron variant.
The DOH earlier warned of an “exponential growth” in COVID-19 cases due to Omicron, which is seen to be more contagious than the already transmissible Delta variant.
The agency reported Sunday 4,600 additional infections, raising the total number of active cases to 21,418.
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