Health Secretary Ted Herbosa yesterday said the public need not worry about the “minimal” rise in COVID-19 cases, as he noted the Department of Health (DOH) did not allocate any budget to buy new anti-coronavirus vaccines for 2024.
In a media briefing, Herbosa said based on DOH statistics, current COVID-19 cases are still not much higher compared to the same months last year.
“Yes, there is a slight uptick. Yes, hospitals said their COVID beds are full. But the context before, COVID beds became fewer,” said Herbosa.
“Sone hospitals said their COVID beds are occupied, but that’s because there are fewer COVID beds,” added the DOH chief.
As of Dec. 11, Herbosa said COVID-19 beds had an occupancy rate of 16% and about 14% in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, percentages that were considered “low risk.”
DOH Undersecretary Eric Tayag said Thursday that allocated COVID-19 beds in the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, National Kidney Transplant Institute, and the Medical City were almost fully occupied amid an increase in coronavirus cases.
However, Herbosa stressed Filipinos “should not be worried about COVID-19 anymore.”
He cites statements from local infectious disease experts that the most recent variants of interest are just like the common cold and flu.
“They are just upper respiratory infections unlike the earlier variety which resulted in severe pneumonia, and they die in the ICU,” he said.
Herbosa also said the DOH would not mandate the wearing of face masks anew, but encouraged people who have symptoms to refrain from going out and attending social gatherings.
He also some hospitals like the Philippine General Hospital put up mask mandates again just to protect other patients, guests, and health workers from acquiring the virus on their premises.
He advised the public to “conduct a self-risk assessment” now that the holiday season was in full swing.
Meanwhile, in not allocating a budget for new COVID vaccines, Herbosa said the DOH will wait for the final registration of new vaccines before the government will buy them.
Herbosa said the country’s supply of COVID-19 monovalent and bivalent vaccines were already exhausted following the lifting of the state of public health emergency in July.
With the new COVID-19 cases, Herbosa said vaccines are not the solution, but awareness of health risks.
“We’ve learned the solution — it’s minimum public health standards. Again, managing your own personal risks. This was the changed narrative,” he said.
“During the pandemic, the government tried to protect everyone. Blanket. Now it’s back to individual-based risk management,” said Herbosa.
He also announced the Philippines will receive from the COVAX facility a million doses of the new COVID-19 monovalent vaccines that specifically target the Omicron XBB subvariant of the coronavirus.
“We’ve been offered one million doses and I’m accepting it from COVAX.
I’m accepting it in tranches of 500,000 so we could also have access,” he said.