Ph reports 253 new COVID-19 cases; active tally at 5,967
By Nidz Godino
“We have enough boosters for the second booster. Individuals who received their first booster could be given a second booster. The rollout of the first booster was quite slow,” National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) chairperson and Health Undersecretary Dr. Myrna Cabotaje said Philippines reported 253 additional cases of COVID-19 to bring country’s active tally to 5,967, data released by the Department of Health (DOH) revealed.
The latest figures brought total caseload to 3,685,895, including 3,619,531 recoveries, and 60,397 deaths.
Broken down on a geographical basis, the National Capital Region (NCR) recorded the most cases in the past two weeks with 1,068. This was followed by Calabarzon with 391, and Central Luzon with 223.
Western Visayas came in fourth with 119 cases, followed by Central Visayas with 109.
Philippines on Sunday also administered 768 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, May 1 which includes 195 first doses, and 573 second doses.
Total doses administered now stand at 148.467 million, including 66.291 million first doses, 67.959 million complete doses, and 14.215 million booster doses.
Same data from the DOH indicate that country’s bed occupancy stands at 15.7% as of April 29, 2022, with 26,642 vacant beds while 4,974 are occupied.
NVOC on Saturday reported that total of 6,702 immunocompromised individuals have received their second COVID-19 booster shots in the first week of the government’s rollout.
At the Laging Handa briefing, Cabotaje also said they do not yet have data on non-immunocompromised individuals who received their second booster.
Cabotaje said there are now 67.8 million fully-vaccinated individuals in the country as the government had delivered 146.7 million total jabs.
While 31.2 million persons have received their booster shots, Cabotaje said the rollout for the first booster was “quite slow.”
“We will have a sufficient supply for those willing to have their second booster if it will be opened up to other age groups,” Cabotaje added.
Cabotaje said NVOC will be studying whether to set up vaccination sites in precincts come election day.
The Philippine government started administering the second COVID-19 booster shots for the immunocompromised on Monday, April 25.
The NVOC earlier said it was expecting that around 7,000 to 13,000 immunocompromised individuals will take their second COVID-19 booster doses during the first day of its rollout.
The Department of Health (DOH) was looking into reports that a hospital in the National Capital Region allegedly administered second COVID-19 booster shots to health workers and senior citizens who are not immunocompromised.
The Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) earlier recommended that the second COVID-19 booster shot be given to the immunocompromised first at this time.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier said there is no indication that there will be a lockdown after Eleksyon 2022 due to a possible rise in the number of COVID-19 cases.
” As of now, there is no indication that there will be a lockdown after the elections,” Duque said in an interview.
Duque said if needed, there will only be granular lockdowns and not widespread lockdown.
” If we will have lockdown, it will only be granular…we’re done with widespread lockdown,” he said.
“The increases in cases are not significant, although we should not be putting our guards down,” Cabotaje meanwhile said at the Laging Handa briefing on Saturday.
She echoed Duque in saying only granular lockdowns will be implemented if there will be a COVID-19 surge after Eleksyon 2022.
The Philippines may experience another surge in COVID-19 infections by mid-May, with Metro Manila possibly recording as many as almost half a million active cases if minimum public health standards (MPHS) are ignored, the Department of Health (DOH) earlier warned.
It said a 50% decrease in the compliance of minimum public health standards in Metro Manila may result in 25,000 to 60,000 new COVID-19 cases per day by mid-May.
Meanwhile, 20% decrease in MPHS compliance nationwide may lead to around 34,788 active COVID-19 cases, and a 30% decrease in MPHS compliance might increase the cases further, possibly to as high as 300,000, over the same period, the DOH said.
The OCTA Research group does not recommend reimposition of lockdowns despite projecting an increase in COVID-19 infections from 50,000 to 100,000 active cases soon.
At the Laging Handa briefing on Saturday, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Butch Ong reported that the National Capital Region’s reproduction number which refers to the number of people infected by one case is at 0.71.
“It slightly increased yet it is still not alarming…our daily new cases are below 200,” Ong said.
The DOH on Friday logged 184 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country’s caseload to 3,685,403.
Based on the DOH’s latest data, the active infections dropped from 9,585 on Thursday to 8,389 on Friday.
Duque said positivity rate is at 1.3. The positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who were found positive for COVID-19 among the total number of individuals tested.
Meanwhile, Duque said there is no need to worry about the BA.2.12 subvariant of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as it has not been identified by the World Health Organization as a variant of interest or variant of concern.
” There is no need to worry about BA.2.12 because the WHO has not classified it as a variant of interest and variant of concern,” he said.
The DOH earlier said the first case of Omicron BA.2.12 was detected in Baguio City in a 52-year-old Finnish female who arrived from Finland last April 2.
However, the Philippine Genome Center on Friday said no onward transmission of the COVID-19 Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12 was detected in the country since then.
“We support the IATF’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases move on the alert levels because they are evidence-based and grounded on the data reported. But we will monitor the new subvariants of the Omicron found in other countries,” Ong said.
“We will monitor the trend in the next week. ..we could not tell yet if there will be massive increase in cases, but for now, the situation is under control,” Ong added.
Duque then encouraged the public to have their booster shots against COVID-19 and not wait for a surge in cases to do so.
” One should have a booster shot [of the COVID-19 vaccine] now and not wait for a surge in cases before having it,” he said.
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