Duque: COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila have reached peak

MANILA, Philippines — COVID-19 infections in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the surge driven by the Omicron variant, have peaked already, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Monday.

“Lumalabas na nag-peak na at nakikita nating ilang araw nang sunod na sunod na bumaba ang kaso sa National Capital Region at lumiliit ang porsyentong iniaambag nito sa ating total caseload,” Duque told state-run broadcaster People’s Television.

(It appears that COVID-19 cases have peaked already. Cases continue to decline in NCR and the percentage of infections that the region contributes to the total caseload is shrinking.)

The DOH on Sunday reported 29,828 additional infections, of which 18% or 5,178 cases were from the capital region.

Metro Manila could be de-escalated to Alert Level 2 should the situation in the capital region meet the threshold set by the government.

“We (IATF) might discuss if we can go down to Alert Level 2 but that’s not yet cast in stone because we will meet to review the metrics,” Duque said.

But the health chief noted that Metro Manila is “ready” to return to a less stringent alert level.

“Maganda naman ang vaccination coverage. Maganda ang tiwala na maaayos natin ‘yung pagsunod sa minimum public health standards,” he said.

(Our vaccination coverage is good. We are confident that we will improve people’s compliance with minimum public health standards.)

Daily cases reached record highs in January following the detection of local cases of the hyper-contagious Omicron variant. 

The Philippines has detected 3.4 million COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic. Of the figure, 273,580 were active cases.