MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday said 1,772 more people were confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19, bringing the total number of active cases to 30,876.
This was the first time in two days that new COVID-19 cases fell below 2,000.
At least 153 more people recovered from COVID-19, which brought the total number of survivors to 348,967.
But 49 more people succumbed to COVID-19, raising the death toll to 7,318.
With the additional 1,772 cases, the country’s total COVID-19 cases have reached 387,161 of which 90.1 percent have already recovered, 1.89 percent have died while 8 percent are still battling the coronavirus.
Of the 30,876 active cases, the DOH said 82.5 percent had mild symptoms, 10 percent had no symptoms, 2.7 percent had severe symptoms while 4.8 percent were in critical condition.
Pampanga province recorded the most number of new infections at 154, followed by Quezon City (115), Laguna (83), Baguio City (70) and Manila 69.
The DOH said out of the 14,019 people who were the latest to be tested for COVID-19, 1,016 tested positive, which meant a positivity rate of 7.2 percent. This was higher than the 6 percent positivity rate recorded on Monday.
In Malacanang, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque defended President Duterte’s designation of Secretary Carlito Galvez, who is the chief implementer of the government’s COVID 19 strategy, as the new vaccine czar.
Roque said that the distribution of a COVID 19 vaccine to all Filipinos would be more of a massive logistical undertaking than a medical challenge, hence the President’s decision to appoint a retired general for the task.
The vaccine would need to be imported, and stored properly before being distributed all over the country, Roque said.
“So it’s more of a logistics challenge than a medical challenge,” he told a press briefing.
The vaccine czar has to have managerial skills and should be well-versed in management processes, he said.
Galvez said planning the vaccine distribution was akin to preparing for a national election, which required harnessing various resources and needed a whole of government approach.
He has drawn up a road map for this that he would submit to the President for approval this week, he said.
He explained that it would still be the Department of Health and the vaccine expert panel that would be in charge of the scientific evaluation and selection of the COVID 19 vaccine to be used in the Philippines.
But Galvez said he would be the one that would make the arrangements for its procurement, storage, distribution, and implementation.
The DOH remains the primary response agency with regard to the pandemic, while he would implement its vaccine policy, he said.
As vaccine czar, he would be the “milestone gatekeeper or integrator or synchronizer of all agencies,” he said.
The military and the police would provide the manpower for the vaccine distribution, he said.
But Galvez said local government units would play a key role in the vaccination drive.
They would be the ones to convince the people to be vaccinated, for one, he said.
They would also collate the necessary information for the vaccination drive, including identifying those who should be given priority, he said.