Ph, already over crisis stage of pandemic- Duque
By Nidz Godino
“We are already past it because we are already under low risk classification,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the country has already crossed past crisis stage of COVID-19 pandemic.
Duque noted the improved nationwide numbers when it comes to two-week growth rate, average daily attack rate (ADAR) and healthcare utilization.
Duque said country’s two-week growth rate is at -81% while the ADAR is at 7 cases per 100,000 population, which he said is considered “low-risk.”
” Then our health systems capacity is also at low risk…a little over 30% of bed capacity are utilized…that’s 3 out of 10, so that’s low,” he said.
Still, Duque said he is not in favor of lifting of mandatory face mask policy anytime soon.
” I don’t believe that the time is near to lift the face mask policy especially since we have campaign rallies…we should in fact intensify our compliance with minimum health standards,” Duque stressed.
The Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,671 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the country’s total tally to 3,644,597.
According to DOH, the country’s positivity rate was at 9.6%. The total conducted COVID-19 tests were 25,629.
The new infections brought active cases to 68,829, of which 1,130 are asymptomatic; 63,037 are mild; 1,433 are severe; and 309 are in critical condition.
This is the lowest number of active cases since January 6.
Of the cases reported, the DOH said 2,610 or 98% occurred within recent 14 days from February 3 to 16.
The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were National Capital Region with 622 or 24%, Region 4A with 323 or 12%, and Region 3 with 287 or 11%.
Total recoveries also increased to 3,520,545 after 6,130 more patients recovered from the disease.
The death toll climbed to 55,223 with 77 new fatalities.
Of the 77 deaths, the DOH said 32 occurred in February 2022, 16 in January 2022, six in December 2021, nine in November 2021, five in October 2021, three in September 2021, five in August 2021, and one in May 2021 due to the late encoding of death information to its system.
The DOH noted that 14 duplicates were removed from the total case count, while 62 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
The DOH said all laboratories were operational on February 14, while six labs were not able to submit their data on time.
Latest data from the DOH also showed that 33% of the country’s intensive care unit beds are utilized, while 17% of the mechanical ventilators are also in use.
In Metro Manila, 32% of the ICU beds are utilized, while 19% of the ventilators are in use.
The National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 will go to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to increase COVID-19 vaccination drive in the region.
At a Laging Handa briefing, NTF medical adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa said NTF Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier announced they will visit the BARMM to identify why the vaccination progress is still low in those areas and encourage residents there to get the COVID-19 jab.
“The good news is many of our provinces have already reached the 70% vaccination rate of their target…of course, there are areas that still have low vaccination rates, but we will look at them and determine how we can speed up the vaccination of the people there,” Herbosa said.
While many areas have reached their target of 70% vaccinated population, Herbosa said they will still analyze how to speed up inoculation drive in places with low vaccination rate, particularly in the Mindanao region.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año pointed out vaccination rate is lowest in BARMM among all regions in the country, thus it will be the government’s focus during the extension of the third wave of its mass vaccination drive.
The Bayanihan, Bakunahan III, originally scheduled from February 10 to 11, was extended to February 18.
Herbosa said one of the problem he sees why inoculation is low in Mindanao region is that communities there are having doubts that vaccines are halal or lawful.
“The National Commission of Muslim Affairs has announced that vaccines are approved, that they are not haram, and that they did not come from animals…most of the vaccines we got come from plant products, so it’s not true that they are haram,” he explained.
“Our Muslim leaders say that as long as it is used for public good, that is halal,” he added.
To convince Muslim community to get the jab, Herbosa said government’s communication and information campaign need to be amped up in BARMM just like what was done in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Another obstacle that he noted was vaccination sites in these areas are not as accessible to the public as they are in Metro Manila.
“We will work out a solution to that. ..we will find a way to get the vaccination centers closer to the people…the other provinces have already done it through barangays that have brought vaccines closer to people,” Herbosa said.
Herbosa saw transportation of vaccines in far areas as a challenge as some brands need to be in cold chain storage.
“Because of that, we can’t immediately deploy vaccines in remote areas and we have to ensure supply chain management is precise so that there are no wasted vaccines,” he said.
“It is very important to maintain cold chain while vaccines are delivered to the remote areas in Mindanao,” Herbosa added.
DOH accepted a 38 cold chain transportation vehicles donation from Korean International Cooperation Authority (KOICA) and Korean Embassy to augment country’s cold chain management of COVID-19 vaccines.
This donation was part of the Korean government’s $2.5 million assistance to the Philippines which aims to provide cold chain capacity-building for DOH’s supply chain officers.
Aside from the vehicles, the Korean government also provided assistance for the construction of molecular laboratory and isolation facility in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental. The Republic of Korea has also previously provided donations of walk-through testing booths and testing kits.
“The 34 refrigerated vans and 4 service vehicles will help the country’s National Vaccination Program and further improve cold chain management of COVID-19 vaccines in the regions, we are very grateful to our friends from Korea for their tireless effort and generosity in helping more Filipinos get vaccinated… cooperation is a testament that we are not safe anywhere until we are safe everywhere” Duque said in a statement.
The said donated units will be deployed to the various regions of the country through the DOH Centers for Health Development.
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