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MANILA, Philippines —The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday reported an increase in COVID-19 infection rates to 18.6%, but maintained a low-risk classification.
It was almost two percent higher than the previous week’s 16.7 percent and over four times the World Health Organization’s ideal threshold of 5 percent for the positivity rate.
“Sa ganitong lagay tumataas po ang national weekly positivity rate tungo 18.6 percent mula from 16.7 percent positivity rate last week,” said Vergeire.
(In this situation, the national weekly positivity rate increased 18.6 percent from just a 16.7 percent positivity rate last week.)
“Nationally low-risk classification pa rin with an average daily attack rate (ADAR) of 3.42 cases per 100,000 population,” she added.
(Nationally, we remain a low-risk classification with an ADAR of 3.42 cases per 100,000 population.)
The previous week, the country had an ADAR of 2.9 cases per 100,000 population.
Meanwhile, Metro Manila and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) are still at moderate risk classification with an ADAR of 9.15 and 7.9 cases per 100,000 population, respectively, said Vergeire.
On the other hand, ten regions that Vergeire didn’t specify remained at a low-risk classification, ranging from 1 to 3 cases per 100,000 population.
BARMM’s ICU utilization rate on moderate risk
In terms of ICU utilization rate, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is currently under moderate risk, with five severe and critical cases among its total admissions, said Vergeire.
She added that four regions, namely, Calabarzon, Western Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Bicol Region, also have a healthcare capacity above 40 percent.
However, Vergeire noted that a considerable chunk of the total COVID-19 admissions is still asymptomatic (14.62 percent of total admissions) and mild (42.5 percent of total) cases.
Vergeire also assured that hospitals nationwide are prepared and the current situation is still “manageable.”
“Let me just assure everybody, even though the utilization in some of our hospitals in some of our areas is increasing, it is still manageable, and we can still expand our beds so that the public can still access these hospitals,” said Vergeire.
Meanwhile, 71.9 million Filipinos have now been vaccinated against COVID-19, including 9.7 million adolescents, 4.2 million children, and 6.8 million senior citizens.
Over 16.6 million individuals have also been inoculated with their first booster shot, while 1.5 million have received their second booster shot.