DOH alarmed as daily cases soar to near-3k, infection rate over 10%
The Philippines logged 2,961 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, as the positivity rate soared to more than 10 percent on New Year’s Eve, the Department of Health (DOH) reported.
Friday’s tally was nearly double or 82 percent higher than Thursday’s count of 1,623 new cases, and brought the total number of cases to 2,843,979.
The nationwide positivity rate—or percentage of people who test positive for COVID-19—rose from A16.6 percent to 10.3 percent, based on the test results of samples from 30,526 people on Dec. 29.
The number of fresh infections was the highest since Nov. 10, when 2,639 new cases were reported, Health experts warned that another surge was likely due to increased mobility and relaxed health protocols.
This was way above the World Health Organization’s benchmark of 5 percent positivity rate or lower for at least two weeks. A relatively high rate means more people should be tested for the coronavirus.
The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) (1,981 or 68 percent), Region 4-A or Calabarzon (431 or 15 percent) and Region 3 or Central Luzon (179 or 6 percent).
There were 132 new fatalities reported Friday, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 51,504.
The recent increase in cases can be attributed to the public’s increased mobility due to the holiday season, said Prof. Jomar Rabajante of the University of the Philippines (UP) pandemic response team.
“Most of the people are coming from the working class age group,coming from millennials and Gen Z, 20s and 30s. Probably because of many reasons… front liners are also within this age range, these people are very mobile, they can already go outside,” he said.
He said if the spike was due to the Omicron variant of thecoronavirus, infections could rise higher than the peak in September.
“We might be expecting more people to be infected during the first (few) weeks of January 2022. We still need to wait for the DNA sequenced results from the Philippine Genome Center to really see if this is already Omicron. Remember (the) Delta (variant) is also very transmissible.”
The DOH reported 481 new recoveries, bringing the total” recoveries to 2,778,242.
There were 14,233 active cases, of which 628 were asymptomatic; 8,365 mild; 3,197 moderate; 1,701 severe; and 342 critical.
Nationwide, 20 percent of ICU beds, 22 percent of isolation beds, 12 percent of ward beds, and 11 percent of ventilators, were in use.
In Metro Manila, 24 percent of ICU beds, 21 percent of isolation beds, 21 percent of ward beds, and 14 percent of ventilators, were in use.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Friday expressed alarm due to the recent doubling of daily COVID-19 cases during the holiday season.
In an interview with Dobol B TV, Duque said the DOH would keep a close watch on whether the doubling will continue.
“It is indeed alarming because there is no doubt that the cases are doubled in a single day,” Duque said in Filipino.
The DOH reported 889 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, which doubled to 1,623 on Thursday.
If the increasing trend continues, Duque said the compliance to minimum public health standards should be followed more strictly.
Earlier, the OCTA Research group said the National Capital Region’s new COVID-19 cases could soar to more than 2,000 on New Year’s Eve after its positivity rate reached 14 percent.
Health officials inaugurated the 344-bed Manila COVID-19 Field Hospital Friday, which will be used to isolate and quarantine returning overseas Filipinos who test positive for the coronavirus disease.
A total of 104 overseas Filipinos who yielded positive results in their reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests and have mild symptoms or were asymptomatic were brought to the Manila hospital for quarantine on Friday.
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso said the Manila Covid-19 Field Hospital was established at Rizal Park, a property of the national government, as part of the city’s commitment in the fight against Covid-19.
“We made a commitment to the national government. We told them that whatever we build in its property will be utilized and shared,” Domagoso said in Filipino.
Duque said the city government of Taguig also made a similar commitment to help the national government by allowing their quarantine facilities to be used for the same purpose.
COVID-19 admissions at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), once on the wane, have doubled again since the start of December.
According to a report on “24 Oras”, the cases admitted rose from 30 at the start of the month to 65 at present.
PGH spokesman Dr. Jonas Del Rosario said the hospital is ready to increase the number of its COVID-19 beds if necessary.
Del Rosario, however, urged the public to rethink having family gatherings in the remaining days of the holidays.
“We’re not panicking but we’re really watching it closely because for the last five days, it’s been increasing,” Del Rosario said.
Meanwhile, at the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center in Tondo, Manila, the number of COVID-infected patients rose to 23 after Christmas from zero in the previous two weeks.
“During Christmas, actually on the 28th, we started receiving cases.
As of this morning, we have 23 patients with COVID-19,” said Dr. Ted Martin, the hospital’s OIC, in a separate interview over radio dzBB.
None of the patients was in the intensive care unit, Martin said, as they are only mild to moderate cases.
Meanwhile, 19 patients—and even some health workers—have pending test results.
Martin said he feared that the increase may be due to the more transmissible Omicron variant.
“Based on our estimate and on how contagious it is, this may be due to the Omicron variant,” said Martin.