US President Joe Biden said in a television interview aired Sunday that the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is over.
With COVID restrictions largely eliminated in the country and travel having rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, the comments were reflective of the current status of much of US society.
“The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it… but the pandemic is over,” Biden told the CBS news program “60 Minutes” in an interview taped as he walked the floor of the Detroit Auto Show last week.
“If you notice, no one’s wearing masks,” Biden said, gesturing around the hall. “Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing.”
Biden’s optimism stood in sharp contrast to the cautious view held by an expert in infectious diseases in the Philippines, who said the end of the pandemic is not yet in sight in this country.
Dr. Rontgene Solante, chairman of Adult Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at San Lazaro Hospital, said community transmission of the coronavirus is continuing in the Philippines.
Solante was reacting to a recent remark from the World Health Organization that said the end of the pandemic was in sight.
The UN health agency said newly reported cases of the disease fell to the lowest level since March 2020. But it warned that the decline in new infections is deceptive since many countries have cut back on testing and may not be detecting the less serious cases.
In the Philippines, some regions are still classified as “moderate risk” for COVID-19 infection, Solante said.
Last week, the Department of Health announced that Metro Manila had reverted to a “moderate risk” for COVID-19 after recording a 16.4 percent positivity rate, or three times higher than the WHO benchmark of 5 percent.
The DOH on Monday also logged 3,119 fresh coronavirus cases—the highest daily number of new infections recorded in the country since September 10. This comes after eight straight days of fewer than 3,000 new cases, bringing the total nationwide tally to 3,923,727.
Active COVID-19 cases in the country likewise increased to 27,686 from the 26,401 reported on Sunday. It is the highest number of active infections in 22 days and marks the second straight day of increasing active cases.
The Philippines recorded 14,707 new COVID-19 infections from Sept. 12 to 18, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday.
Based on the agency’s case bulletin, the cases logged in the recent week were 4 percent lower compared to the 15,379 cases from Sept. 5 to 11.
The daily case average for the recent week also slightly decreased to 2,101, from last week’s 2,197.
A total of 248 additional verified COVID-19-related deaths were, belatedly reported in the past week. These deaths were logged from July 2020 to September 2022.
Data also showed that 772 severe and critical cases were admitted in hospitals due to COVID-19 as of Sept.18, 10 percent of the total COVID-19 admissions.
Some 24 percent of the 2,638 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 637 or 24.1 percent were occupied.
Of the new cases recorded from Sept. 12 to 18, seven were tagged as severe or critical. With Willie Casas