By Alec Go
The Department of Health (DOH) said the lower COVID-19 case count reported today (Sept. 8) at 12,751 was due to “technical issues in the COVID-19 information system.”
Based on the latest case bulletin, the country now has 151,135 active cases from the total tally of 2,134,005 after 20,151 have recovered and 174 died.
The DOH said in a statement that more cases are expected to be reported once the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) resolves the problem in the COVIDKaya system.
The number of daily reported cases was around 14,000 to 22,000 since the beginning of the month, with at least 20,000 cases reported per day from Sept. 3 to 6. The DOH said in its Sept. 6 Beat COVID-19 media forum that cases may still increase in the following weeks due to the Delta variant threat and the conduct of active case findings.
The Philippines remains under high-risk classification in terms of cases and health systems capacity, with a two-week growth rate (2WGR) of 32%, average daily attack rate (ADAR) of 15.79 per hundred thousand population.
The country’s intensive care unit (ICU) utilization is at 76% as of Sept. 8, isolation bed utilization is at 67%, ward beds occupancy rate is at 72%, and ventilators are at 56%.
Health authorities continue to advise the strict enforcement of health protocols, active case finding and immediate isolation, and augmentation in a healthcare capacity.
Dr. Alethea De Guzman of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau said in the Sept. 7 Palace briefing that adherence to health protocols, shortening of the detection-isolation interval to under five days, and vaccination must be enhanced aside from imposing lockdowns.
“Projections done by our partner FASSSTER showed that even at lower community quarantine levels, if we improve these 3 strategies, halos ang epekto niya katulad na kung tayo ay nag-ECQ,” she said.
“This is our way to balance health and economy. We want to be able to reduce cases, but at the same time, safely open up sectors so people can continue working,” she added. – bny
