By Pearl Gumapos
The National Capital Region (NCR) may be Delta variant-resilient in a few months, the OCTA Research Group said on Wednesday (July 7).
“The data suggest that in a few months, the NCR may be Delta-resilient and this is good news for the country,” OCTA Research fellow Fr. Nick Austriaco said in an interview with ANC’s Headstart.
“Risk is determined by numbers. And the numbers here, based on the metrics established by the DOH, suggest that the risk to the health infrastructure of the country is low. So, it’s not necessarily a risk to the individual Filipino,” he said.
Austriaco also said the risk of contracting COVID-19 is not low enough to stop using face masks.
“For the most part, what the DOH is saying is that if you look at the numbers, the risk of a devastating surge to our healthcare infrastructure is quite low. [But] I would say no [to stopping the use of face mask and face shield]. Our risk for individual infection is not low enough that you could remove your face mask,” Austriaco said.
The OCTA member also said the risk would drop significantly once the average daily attack rate (ADAR) falls below one and that would be less than 100 cases in the NCR per day.
According to National Task Force Against COVID-19 Adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa at Thursday’s Laging Handa public briefing, the Philippines has so far administered some 12 million COVID-19 vaccine jabs, including one million doses in the past four days. – jlo
