DOH probes reports more ‘work-age’ Filipinos are getting severe COVID-19 cases

A policeman (R) monitors people at the entrance to a neighbourhood under strict quarantine measures in Pasay City, suburban Manila, on March 16, 2021, as the number of new daily cases of Covid-19 coronavirus has surged to the highest level in seven months. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is looking at reports from clinicians that more Filipinos in the younger population are getting severe COVID-19 infection as new coronavirus cases swell to over 9,000 in the recent days.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the bulk of COVID-19 cases in the country is from those aged 20 to 49 because they belong to the working-age group. She noted that the higher the cases, the higher the number of people who could die among this age bracket.

“Tinitingnan natin ito in that manner pero of course we are really looking at that aspect ngayon, ‘yung sinasabi ng ating clinicians that there are more younger people that are having severe infections compared to before,” she said in an online press briefing.

(We are looking at it in that manner. But we are also looking at reports from clinicians that more younger people are having severe infections compared to before.)

Vergeire said this when asked about the seemingly increasing number of social media posts on deaths of COVID-19 positive individuals belonging to the younger set.

According to Vergeire, there are other foreign studies suggesting that new variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, may be having an impact on the severity of infections and on reinfections.

However, she stressed that there is no sufficient evidence yet to support this theory.

Earlier statements from the DOH showed that the variants have an impact on the transmissibility of the virus, but there was no proof yet if they increased the severity of cases.

To help curb the number of COVID-19 cases among the working-age group, Vergeire said the DOH has recommended for the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to look at certain industries that can operate on a work-from-home set-up for employees. She said this is currently being discussed by concerned government agencies.

A total of 795,320 individuals in the country have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of April 3, according to Malacañang. Among those vaccinated were 765,871 medical frontliners, 16,121 senior citizens, and 13,288 persons with comorbidities.

Frontline workers in essential sectors belong to the fourth priority in the vaccination drive.

EDV