OCTA fellow: Current COVID-19 surge may be over by end of January

MANILA, Philippines — Based on the experience of South Africa, the current surge being experienced in the Philippines may only last a month and may be over by the end of January, OCTA Research fellow Guido David said Wednesday.

David said that in South Africa, the COVID-19 spike due to the Omicron variant was higher compared to the Delta variant spike.

“This is the situation in South Africa, we see that [spike was] higher than the Delta spike, but it lasted for just one month,” David said during the GoNegosyo Town Hall on the COVID-19 situation in the Philippines.

“So this gives us some optimism that the surge that we’re seeing right now may last just one month and will be over by the end of January, effectively,” he added.

Nonetheless, David stressed that the situation in South Africa was just “an experience of a country.”

“We may not have the same experience. We’ll just have to see, but this could play out like a fairly more optimistic scenario,” David said.

The Department of Health (DOH) earlier announced that the Philippines is once again classified as “high risk” for COVID-19 amid the recent increase in cases in the country.

On Tuesday, the Philippines recorded 5,434 additional COVID-19 cases, pushing the country’s overall case count to 2,861,119 infections.

Due to the surge in cases, Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, and Bulacan have been placed under a stricter Alert Level 3 to control mobility of the public.

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