All areas in the country are under low risk classification for COVID-19 amid the current decline in the reported number of cases, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said no region across the country is experiencing case increase despite the easing of restrictions.
Based on the latest case update, the seven-day average of new cases is 559 for the entire country and 162 for Metro Manila.
“Maski ‘yung mga nasa ilalim ng Alert Level 2 ay low risk na ang kanilang classification. Patuloy pa nating pinapataas ang ating bakunahan sa mga lugar na nasa Alert Level 2 para makapagpababa pa sila at makarating na at made-escalate sa Alert Level 1,” Vergeire said.
Even with the downtrend of cases, health experts continue to remind the public against the threat of new COVID-19 variants, including the “Deltacron” detected in France, Denmark, and Netherlands.
“We’ve also been looking at other reports from other countries that actually opened the possibility that what has been called ‘Deltacron’ might have been a sequencing error coming from lab contamination,” Dr. Anna Ong-Lim of the DOH Technical Advisory Group said.
Meanwhile, the government continues to expand the COVID-19 vaccination program with over 64.5 million fully vaccinated Filipinos as of March 14.
In the fourth leg of the National Vaccination Days dubbed as “Bayanihan, Bakunahan 4,” at least 1,400,889 doses were administered. The campaign has been extended until March 18.
The National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) said the country is on track in terms of achieving its 70 million fully vaccinated individuals target by the end of March.
“Nasa 64.5million ang fully vaccinated, so halos tatlong linggo, dapat maka-5.5 million, that’s one to two million a week, sa palagay natin maabot natin,” NVOC Chairperson Myrna Cabotaje said.
“Kaya nag-request ang iba’t-ibang regions to continue vaccinating, kung ‘di man, we will go by different areas, kung sino ang mabilis magbakuna at kung sino ‘yung kailangang magbakuna,” she added.
To date, around 1.2 million children ages 5 to 11 years old and 9.7 million in the 12 to 17 years old age categories have been vaccinated. The numbers are expected to go up with the approval of Sinovac’s emergency use authorization to be used for children six years old and above. – Report from Mark Fetalco/AG-rir
