The Philippines logged 1,712 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the lowest number of daily cases this year.
Amid the declining daily case count, Metro Manila mayors are set to meet on Tuesday to discuss the possible lowering of the region’s COVID-19 status to Alert Level 1, the loosest community quarantine level.
Romando Artes, officer-in-charge and general manager of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, said the mayors will also discuss details of the “new normal” plan for Metro Manila.
Under the new normal, all restrictions on establishments and public transport will be lifted, but minimum public health standards, including wearing of face masks, will be retained.
“Once we are downgraded to Alert Level 1, almost all industries will open at 100 percent capacity. Face-to-face classes will also resume, except for those at the primary level, which will require the approval of the President,” Artes said.
“You can say we will be back to normal, or that our pre-pandemic activities will become regular,” he added.
Sunday’s number of new cases is the lowest since Dec. 30 last year.
The positivity rate was at 8.8 percent, based on 28,500 people tested for COVID-19 on Feb. 18. As per the World Health Organization (WHO), a test positivity of over 5 percent is a cause for concern.
The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (Metro Manila) with 316 or 20 percent, Region 4-A (Calabarzon) with 221 or 14 percent, and Region 6 (Western Visayas) with 180 or 11 percent.
There were 77 new fatalities, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 55,684.
The DOH also reported an increase to 3,686 new recoveries, bringing the total number of recoveries to 3,535,987.
There were 60,532 active cases, of which 856 were asymptomatic; 55,102 were mild; 2,848 were moderate; 1,421 were severe; and 305 were critical.
Nationwide, 30 percent of ICU beds, 26 percent of isolation beds, 20 percent of ward beds, and 15 percent of ventilators, are in use.
In Metro Manila, 27 percent of ICU beds, 23 percent of isolation beds, 26 percent of ward beds, and 17 percent of ventilators, are in use.
Worldwide, the novel coronavirus has caused more than 423 million infections and over 5.88 million deaths since it was first reported in Wuhan, China in late 2019 according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, citing official reports.
The United States remains the most badly affected country with over78.4 million infections and over 935,000 deaths.
Taking into account excess mortality linked to COVID-19, the World Health Organization has estimated that the overall death toll could be two to three times higher.
In other developments:
• Infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said he sees a decrease in the BA.1 and the BA.2 or Stealth Omicron infections and the increase in the administration of booster shots as possible indicators that the wearing of face masks may no longer be mandatory. Earlier, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the mandatory use of face masks would “most likely” be dropped by the fourth quarter of the year. On the other hand, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said he is not in favor of lifting the mandatory face mask policy anytime soon.
• The independent OCTA Research Group said Lucena City in Quezon has now been classified as being at “very low risk” for COVID-19 due to a “very low” average daily attack rate (ADAR) of 0.79 and a positivity rate of 3 percent. ADAR refers to the daily average number of new cases per 100,000 people. The positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who were found positive for COVID-19 among the total number of individuals tested.