President Rodrigo Duterte said people selling counterfeit medicines online, including injectable drugs for treating COVID-19, should be properly prosecuted.
Duterte added that there has to be somebody from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would keep track of the criminal cases filed against these counterfeit sellers.
The FDA earlier again cautioned the public against patronizing counterfeit injectable COVID-19 vaccines and fake medicines.
FDA officer-in-charge Oscar Gutierrez said a fake Tocilizumab injection for COVID-19 treatment is being sold for about P25,000 per vial.
Gutierrez said any medicine should only be sourced from FDA-licensed establishments. Gutierrez said a total of 85 persons were arrested in the last two years for selling counterfeit drugs.
The country logged on Tuesday 3,574 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 3,619,633.
The Department of Health (DOH) also reported that the number of fresh infections is the lowest since December 31, when the DOH announced 2,961. It is also the eighth straight day that the daily case tally has remained below 10,000.
There are 105,550 active cases, of which 4,059 are asymptomatic; 96,722 are mild; 3,007 are moderate; 1,446 are severe; and 316 are critical. Positivity rate was at 16.3 percent, based on 23,754 individuals tested on COVID-19 on February 6. The DOH also reported 83 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 54,621.
Further, the DOH also reported that, nationwide, 41 percent of ICU beds, 36 percent of isolation beds, 35 percent of ward beds, and 20 percent of ventilators, were in use.
The country has remained at “moderate risk” for COVID-19, the DOH said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that the average daily attack rate in the country has dropped to 11.35 percent cases per every 100,000 individuals in the recent two weeks from January 25, 2022 to February 07, 2022.
The National Capital Region, Caraga, Cordillera Administrative Region, Regions 6, 2, 7, 1, 4A, and 3 are also at moderate risk classification, while Regions 8, 5, 4B, and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are under low risk.
Regions 11, 9, 12, and 10 remained at high risk classification.
Duque also said there is “low incidence” of severe disease among Omicron cases and the case fatality rate was lower by at least 12 times versus other variants.
Of the 2,702 Omicron cases since mid-December, Duque said only six were severe and critical cases or 0.22%. Nine deaths were also recorded due to Omicron, which means the case fatality rate was at 0.33 percent. With Willie Casas
