Good summer season possible as COVID cases decline — OCTA Research

MANILA, Philippines — A good, more fun summer season is possible as the country’s COVID-19 cases are on a downward trend, a fellow of independent analytics group OCTA Research said Tuesday.

“Posible talaga ‘yun basta wala bagong variant na banta,” Guido David answered during the Laging Handa public briefing when quizzed if the group sees a good summer season.

(That is possible as long as there is no threat of a new variant.)

“Nakikita natin pababa na talaga ‘yung bilang ng kaso sa Visayas at sa Mindanao. Mayroon na lang iilang lugar na matuturing high-risk — I think Iloilo City ang isa diyan — pero pababa na rin sila,” he added.

(Cases in the Visayas and Mindanao are really going down. There are just a few areas that could be considered high-risk — I think Iloilo is one — but the cases are decreasing.)

“By summer, tingin ko baka ‘yung sitwasyon natin tulad na ng nakita natin nung November and December na mababa talaga ang bilang ng kaso at pwede na magluwag, pwede na magbukas ‘yung tourism natin,” said David.

(By summer, I think our situation will be like what we had last November and December wherein cases are really low and restrictions could be relaxed, tourism could reopen.)

Before the Omicron-driven surge at the start of 2022, the country’s daily cases in December last year were below 1,000.

On February 14, the country registered 2,730 new COVID infections, the lowest daily tally for 2022. Total COVID-19 caseload stood at 3,639,942.

To date, 61 million individuals in the country are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

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