DOH notes slow decline in new COVID-19 cases
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health said Friday it is seeing a slow decline in the number of new COVID-19 infections in the country.
“Our epidemic curve shows that while a swift decline followed the peak of cases, this decline has markedly slowed down over the past weeks,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
From March 10 to 16, the country logged an average of 534 additional cases per day. The figure was 29% lower than the daily average from the previous week.
Vergeire also reported that only 12% of hospital admissions in the country had severe and critical illness.
The utilization of all COVID-19 beds nationwide remained at low risk, with only 18% of the beds occupied. Meanwhile, the national ICU utilization rate dropped to 19% from 51% during the peak of the surge driven by Omicron.
“Ito ay bunga ng ating pagtutulungan sa pamamagitan ng pagsunod sa minimum public health standards at pagpapaturok ng bakuna. Ipagpatuloy natin ito nang sa gayon ay tuloy-tuloy tayong mag-martsa tungo sa ating better normal,” Vergeire said.
(These are the outcomes of our adherence to minimum public health standards and vaccination. Let's continue doing these so we can march toward better normal.)
The agency earlier said the entire Philippines is considered low risk for COVID-19 spread.
Metro Manila and 47 other areas are under Alert Level 1 until the end of the month. Health chief Francisco Duque III said Thursday that the country will likely stay at Alert Level 1 until the term of President Rodrigo Duterte ends in June.
The Philippines has reported over 3.67 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started, with 57,880 deaths.
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