(FILE) Men wearing protective mask buy food as people rush before the Muñoz market closes for its morning business as they cut their operations to four hours a day as part of the enhanced community quarantine to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Metro Manila, Philippines on Thursday, March 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday that the plateau of Covid-19 cases that was observed in February was “broken” by a spike of fresh Covid-19 cases.
“The plateauing trend seen in the past month was broken by a spike in new Covid cases this week nationally,” Dr. Alethea de Guzman, a medical specialist at the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, said in an online media forum.
According to De Guzman, the DOH has observed a continued increase of Covid-19 cases specifically in Metro Manila, Central Visayas, and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
In Metro Manila, the “case increase [is] seen in a majority of areas and all have an upward trend.”
De Guzman noted that as cases increase in some areas, the capacity of the health system should be adequate and be augmented if necessary.
She said Central Visayas and the CAR have the highest healthcare utilization rate at 48 percent and 41 percent, respectively, but are still under low-risk classification.
Meanwhile, the healthcare utilization in Metro Manila is at the safe zone at 38 percent.
De Guzman stressed that immediate and heightened response must be implemented in priority areas now. She said granular lockdowns are “strongly recommended” to limit the mobility of people and to efficiently observe the Prevent, Detect, Isolate, Treat, and Reintegrate strategy of the government.
She added that efforts for genomic surveillance should also be continued to monitor and detect other areas of concern.
The DOH has so far confirmed a total of six cases of the South African variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, as well as 87 cases of the United Kingdom variant in the country. Experts earlier said that variants appear to be more contagious.
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