Daily COVID-19 cases may reach over 17,000 by end of July

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MANILA, Philippines — The daily COVID-19 infections nationwide could reach as high as 17,105 daily by the end of July, said the Department of Health (DOH) said in an advisory issued on Tuesday.

That’s the low estimate if people keep complying with minimum public health standards (MPHS).

“If MPHS further declines, along with other factors contributing to higher transmission rates such as lowered vaccination effective coverage and higher mobility, cases may be as high as 22,187,” the DOH added.

According to DOH, the figures are based on its latest projections on June 24.

Using the same projections, the DOH said the daily COVID-19 infections in Metro Manila could reach as high as 11,186 by the end of July.

However, it explained that improving the public’s compliance with health standards “could show an uptrend but at a slower rate, with daily cases ranging from 4,651 to 6,037 per day.”

“Given this, the DOH continuously encourages the eligible population to get vaccinated and boosted with our COVID-19 vaccines,” the DOH said.

“The DOH and NVOC [National Vaccination Operations Center] are currently focusing efforts to ramp-up the rollout of vaccines for our current priority groups through granular and localized analysis of areas with low vaccine coverage of 1st boosters and high numbers of,” it added.

Earlier, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said COVID-19 cases could peak by the end of July and warned that hospitalizations could rise by the end of August due to a waning “wall of immunity.”

According to the latest DOH data, a total of 71,055,752 people nationwide have already completed their primary vaccination against the coronavirus, but only 15,342,652 of them had received a booster dose.

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