Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire. Noy Morcoso / INQUIRER.net
While COVID-19 infections remained on a downtrend nearly a week after the holiday gatherings, the Department of Health (DOH) will continue to monitor trends as more test results come in.
Maria Rosario Vergeire, officer-in-charge of the DOH, said on Friday that this week’s daily caseload was at an average of 426, lower by 28 percent from the previous week.
“We are still not seeing any significant effect of the holidays in the case numbers,” Vergeire told a press briefing.
“It has plateaued and declined, but we cannot say for certain that this would continue. We need to be vigilant and we will monitor based on our current trends,” she added.
The national positivity rate also has gone down to 6.6 percent in the recent week from 8.8 last week, she added. Hospitalizations across the country are also at low risk.
Despite the threat of more virulent strains like the Omicron XBB.1.5, the DOH does not see the need to reimpose tightened COVID-19 curbs as current surveillance systems and health protocols remain effective.“We just go through our protocols currently and we think those have been effective until now,” she noted.
The XBB.1.5 has caused a rapid increase in cases within just weeks in the United States. Health experts have also expressed concern over this Omicron subvariant, which they said was the “most immune evasive” so far.
Not in PH yet
The World Health Organization this week said that it would closely assess the risk of XBB.1.5, which is a recombinant of two BA.2 sublineages.
Detected in October last year, XBB.1.5 is already found in more than 25 countries. It has not been detected in the Philippines.
The DOH had reported eight travelers from China who tested positive from antigen tests upon arrival in the Philippines from Dec. 27 to Jan. 2.
Without further elaborating, Vergeire on Friday said that these individuals were aboard four separate flights and had a total of 89 close contacts who are now under isolation and continually monitored by the concerned local governments.
Only one of them was symptomatic who was later tested for COVID-19. The results have yet to come out, Vergeire said.