MANILA, Philippines — Ninety-seven areas in the country are currently under Alert Level 4, the highest alert level for COVID-19, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Monday.
“For now, we have 97 areas in the country where we are at Alert Level 4. And when we talk about Alert Level 4, your hospitalization or hospital utilization is more than 70 percent already,” Vergeire told ANC.
“So, this is really guarded. It is that risk that we need to monitor and we need to augment our resources so that we can further expand,” she added.
The alert level classification was earlier issued by the Department of Health to provide courses of action in addressing COVID-19 cases in different areas.
Despite the highest alert level, Vergeire hoped to see a decrease in hospitalization among COVID-19 patients as vaccinations are bolstered.
“With the increasing number of cases, our hope would be — that because vaccinations are being ramped up — that the severe and the critical would be less. So that there would be lesser people going to the hospital for admissions,” she said.
On Sunday, the country’s overall COVID-19 case count hit 2,366,749 with 19,271 new COVID-19 infections.
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