DOH: Philippines back to moderate risk for COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The risk level of the Philippines for COVID-19 has returned to moderate after a record-breaking surge in cases fueled by the hyper-contagious Omicron variant, the Department of Health said Wednesday.

In a briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the country registered negative one-week and two-week growth rates.

She said the average daily attack rate remained high at 19.43 cases per 100,000 individuals.

Meanwhile, the capacity of total beds and intensive care unit beds was at low risk.

“So tayo ay talagang nagmu-move na towards itong decline na ito. So hopefully tuloy-tuloy na tayo,” Vergeire said.

(We are really moving towards a decline. Hopefully, it will continue.)

The health official also reported that the country’s positivity rate declined to 35.4% from 46.8%—the peak recorded on January 18.

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

The Philippines has recorded over 3.5 million COVID-19 infections, with 54,000 deaths. Of the total, 176,053 are active cases.