By Alec Go
The total COVID-19 active cases in the Philippines reached 265,509 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported a fresh record-high of 37,207 new COVID-19 cases on Friday (Jan. 14).
Based on the agency’s case bulletin, the new cases bring the COVID-19 case tally to 3,129,512. A total of 9,027 new recoveries and 81 deaths were reported, raising the recovery and death toll to 2,811,188 and 52,815 cases, respectively.
The DOH said 47.3% of the 81,737 tested on Jan. 12 turned out positive for the disease. Currently, there are 300 critical cases, 1,469 severe, 2,913 moderate, 252,502 mild, and 8,325 asymptomatic cases.
The nationwide intensive care units (ICU) occupancy is at 46%, isolation beds at 47%, ward beds at 48%, and ventilators at 19%. The National Capital Region (NCR) has an ICU occupancy rate of 55%, isolation beds at 55%, ward beds at 67%, and ventilators at 26%.
Case peak
In a Palace briefing on Friday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase even in areas outside NCR, prompting the government to include more areas under Alert Level 3.
She said they have been observing a quick doubling time and a sudden rise of cases, “similar to the trends when NCR started to have this increase in cases.”
“Ang peak ng mga kaso, katulad ng aming sinasabi, it’s not going to happen soon,” she said.
Vergeire said the cases might peak towards the end of January or even as late as the second week of February, based on projections shown by experts to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
More areas have been placed under Alert Level 3 until the end of the month. The NCR has also been retained under the same category, but it is being monitored for its hospital bed utilization.
“Kagaya ng palaging sinasabi, kapag tumama po ‘yan sa 71%, then that’s when it would be right to elevate Metro Manila to Alert Level 4,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said.