The Department of Health (DOH) said the country has fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths per million population than some of its neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, based on Oxford University’s Our World in Data as of Nov. 22, 2021.
Citing World Health Organization (WHO) data, the DOH said the Philippines is the 65th with the greatest number of active cases,”134th in terms of COVID-19 cases per million, 120th in terms of deaths per million, and 93rd in terms of case fatality rate” as of Nov. 23.
“These rankings have improved since the end of case peaks recorded in the country last September 2021,” the DOH said.
The country has a two-week growth rate (2WGR) of cases of -49%, and an average daily attack rate (ADAR) of 1.55. Despite the decline in the number of cases, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said COVID-19 cannot yet be declared as under control in the country.
“Na-experience na natin in the past na napababa ang mga kaso, but after some time, tumaas pa rin. So kailangan natin ng longer period to assess and to evaluate what’s happening,” she said.
The WHO also expressed concern on the observed false sense of security among countries amid ongoing vaccination programs,
“Vaccines save lives but they do not fully prevent transmission. Data suggest that before the arrival of the Delta variant, vaccines reduced transmission by about 60%. With Delta, that has dropped to about 40%,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Meanwhile, Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director-General Dr. Eric Domingo reiterated that all approved vaccines being used are safe and efficacious.
As of Nov. 21, there are 76,847 suspected adverse events post-vaccination and 72,963 non-serious adverse events out of the 75.6 million jabs administered.
“The majority of events thought to be related to the administration of the vaccine are actually not due to the vaccine itself, many are simply coincidental events,” he said.
More than 102,000 booster shots and third doses have been used since the beginning of the additional dose rollout. – Report from Mark Fetalco/AG-rir
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