DOH: Metro Manila posts 1,200 new COVID-19 cases per day

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila now records 1,226 new COVID-19 cases per day based on a seven-day moving average, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said this was a decrease from the previous week’s 1,500 new cases on average. However, the numbers have yet to return to the pre-surge level before March.

“Ibig sabihin bumababa [ang mga kaso]. Patuloy ang pagbaba pero hindi pa natin nakikita na talagang mabilis at tuloy tuloy na bumababa, so kailangan natin talagang magtuloy pa rin ng pag-iingat,” she said in an online press briefing.

(This means the number of new cases is decreasing. However, we have yet to see a rapid decrease in cases, so we still need to continue being careful.)

READ: Average new COVID-19 cases daily in NCR down 30%

According to Vergeire, the average number of new cases per day in Metro Manila was only at 430 in January and February.

“That is our target, for us to have that kind of level again,” she said.

Meanwhile, Vergeire said the DOH and other concerned agencies are now discussing the next quarantine status in the NCR Plus, covering Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna and Bulacan, as well as in other areas in the country to present a recommendation to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases next week.

The NCR Plus is currently under general community quarantine with heightened restrictions that will end on May 31.

Metro Manila has 12,441 active cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday, based on the COVID-19 tracker of the DOH. Nationwide, there are 50,635 total active cases.

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