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Friday, March 29, 2024

Government eyeing pandemic exit

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Nograles says IATF working on details, downgrade to Alert Level 1

The government is now working on an exit plan from the COVID-19 pandemic, acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said Wednesday.

“We’ve always been talking about that,” Nograles said in a television interview when asked if the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has such a plan.

The IATF, he said, has its own sub-technical working group on recovering, working on resolutions for the gradual reopening of the economy, reviving tourism, and resuming face-to-face classes.

“So we have a task group for that and they are the ones putting the details on this resiliency plan that we have,” he said.

But Nograles ruled out a proposal to scrap the alert level system altogether, because although the vaccination rate in Metro Manila is high, inoculations still have to be ramped up in other regions in the country.

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Nograles said the alert level system will likely stay in case the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant would trigger another surge of infections.

The Palace official said they are still studying when Alert Level 1 would be declared, which would be the “new normal.”

To downgrade to Alert Level 1, Nograles said an area should record a hospital utilization rate of below 49 percent, a zero or decreasing COVID-19 two-week growth rate, and an average daily attack rate (ADAR) below 1.

Under Alert Level 1, establishments can do away with restrictions on their venue capacity and travel would be allowed regardless of age or comorbidities, while maintaining compliance with minimum public health standards.

He also said they were looking forward to moving the country down to COVID-19 Alert Level 1 as most people will be fully vaccinated and many of them boosted.

Nograles said the health experts have yet to say if COVID-19 will eventually be treated like the seasonal flu.

“There is no consensus on that yet,” he said.

Nograles said the steady decline in active cases and the hospitalization rate showed that vaccines work.

At a briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said though the government does not yet use the term “endemic,” the direction is to see if people can live with the virus.

“Endemicity has many components—we need to see sustained, controlled number of cases, more people are vaccinated, and fewer severe infections,” she said.

The Philippines dropped from a high risk classification to a moderate risk classification for COVID- 19, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Vergeire said the country has recorded a negative one-week and two-week growth rate.

Though the average daily attack rate in the Philippines is still at high risk, it has dropped to 19.93 cases per every 100,000 individuals.

Both the national health systems capacity, total beds, and ICU beds are at low risk, she said.

The National Capital Region (NCR), meanwhile, is classified as a moderate risk for COVID-19, the independent OCTA Research Group said Tuesday.

“Our projection is that within one to two weeks it will be at low risk,” said OCTA Research fellow Guido David, in an interview on state-run PTV.

David said that NCR’s positivity rate is currently at 17 percent and the average daily attack rate (ADAR) is 19.58 percent.

Metro Manila and seven other areas reverted to Alert Level 2, which will be in effect from Feb. 1 to Feb. 15.

Under Alert Level 2, which is the second lowest in the new alert level system, certain establishments and activities are allowed at 50 percent capacity indoors for fully vaccinated adults (and minors, even if unvaccinated), and 70 percent capacity outdoors.

Also under Alert Level 2, the implementation of the “no vaccination, no ride” policy barring unvaccinated people in Metro Manila from boarding public transport will be suspended, the Department of Transportation earlier said.

The Philippines logged on 7,661 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total case count to 3,577,298.

The country’s positivity rate was at 24.8 percent, based on 40,453 tests conducted on Jan. 31.

The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were Region 6 (Western Visayas) with 896 or 15 percent; National Capital Region (Metro Manila) with 873 or 15 percent; and Region 4-A (Calabarzon) with 694 or 12 percent.

There were 43 new fatalities reported, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 54,097.

The DOH also reported 23,392 new recoveries, bringing the total number of recoveries to 3,362,904.

The DOH also reported 160,297 active cases, of which 5,575 were asymptomatic; 149,892 were mild; 3,056 were moderate; 1,521 were severe; and 316 were critical.

Nationwide, 46 percent of ICU beds, 44 percent of isolation beds, 45 percent of ward beds, and 25 percent of ventilators, were in use.

In Metro Manila, 40 percent of ICU beds, 34 percent of isolation beds, 36 percent of ward beds, and 24 percent of ventilators, were in use.

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