The Philippines COVID-19 situation continues to improve, including its ranking in terms of fatality rate for having the least number of COVID-19 deaths compared to other wealthy nations.
In the Nikkei COVID-19 Recovery Index, the Philippines’ spot also improved to 103rd out of 121 countries as of Oct. 31, a month after it ranked last.
“This is not a metric under normal circumstances. This is a metric adopted precisely under a state of public health emergency, where the impact of COVID-19 is also felt across the health sector and across all other disease entities so tayo lumalabas maganda ang ating performance,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
Duque said the development should be attributed to the country’s healthcare workers.
Meanwhile the OCTA Research Group said the seven-day average of new cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) decreased to 293 or less than 300 for the first time since January.
OCTA’s Dr. Guido David said this could further slip to less than 200 by the first week of December, and to less than 100 around Christmas time.
Other metrics
Metro Manila also maintained its low reproduction number, positivity rate and healthcare utilization rate at 0.50, 2%, and 24%, respectively. However, the Department of Health (DOH) said the case decline in the country and in the capital regions has slowed down.
The DOH reported more than 2,000 cases on Nov. 21 which was the highest since Nov. 10.
“Assuming magkaroon ng pagtaas in the next few days, the reason for this could be increased social mobility. Remember, we’re down to Alert Level 2 and we have expanded capacity,” Duque said.
The DOH is hopeful that the Philippines will not go the way of some European countries experiencing a surge after easing restrictions, saying that the public’s behavior toward protocol compliance is improving.
Vax drive
Vaccination continues to be strengthened in the country amid data showing that 93.49% of the more than 30,000 deaths were unvaccinated, and that 86% of 216,074 COVID-19 cases in hospitals from March 1 to Nov. 14 are unvaccinated.
“COVID-19 severe and critical symptoms are 1.75 times more likely to occur among unvaccinated, compared to those vaccinated with two doses,” DOH USec. Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
“And deaths from COVID-19 are 2.6 times more likely to occur among unvaccinated, compared to those vaccinated with two doses,” she added.
The administration of booster and additional shots has already started covering healthcare workers, senior citizens, and immunocompromised individuals. – Report from Mark Fetalco/AG-rir
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