Daily COVID-19 case average below 2,000 amid latest variants

MANILA, Philippines — Daily coronavirus cases fell below 2,000 last week even amid the local transmission of the latest coronavirus variants believed to be immune-evasive.

An average 1,714 daily cases were detected last week, which is 22 percent lower than the 2,188 daily average cases the previous week, according to data from the Department of Health (DOH).

Out of the nearly 12,000 confirmed infections last week, four were in severe or critical condition. To date, there are 650 COVID-19 patients who are severely or critically ill.

Of these patients, 581 are under intensive care, as opposed to 5,666 patients who are not critical.

Out of 23,369 active cases, or people who are currently infected with the virus, around 73 percent are not admitted in hospitals.

Booster coverage low

The DOH confirmed 272 more deaths due to COVID-19, but most of these fatalities were from August last year. This pushed the official death toll to 63,779 out of 3.99 million confirmed cases.

The country has fully vaccinated nearly 73.48 million individuals, or 94 percent of the government’s target of 78.1 million.

Only 20.4 million, however, have availed themselves of booster shots despite the threat of new recombinants of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Only a little over 85,000 individuals were added to the fully vaccinated list during the past week.

Coronavirus vaccination among children also remained low, with only 5.2 million inoculated against COVID-19. The pediatric age group, or children ages 5 to 11, is 13.87 percent of the entire population, the Health Technology Assessment Council said.

Shots for kids

The Philippines has also fared poorly in other vaccination efforts, as it ranked the fifth country in the world with “zero-dose children,” or those who have not received any routine immunization, according to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef).

Unicef Philippines said in a report released on Friday that the country was the “top 5 contributor” to the 18 million children worldwide who were not vaccinated last year.

The country also ranked seventh among nations that have many children unprotected against measles.

Routine immunization for children must include jabs against life-threatening diseases like measles, polio and tuberculosis.

Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, Unicef Philippines representative, said in a statement that falling immunization rates among children as well as the rising number of those at risk of vaccine-preventable illnesses should be treated as “a public health emergency in need of urgent action.”

The Philippines, however, managed to end a polio outbreak in June last year—even amid the pandemic—after inoculating an estimated 11 million children.

According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, 6 million or 87 percent of 6.9 million children under 5 years old received oral polio vaccines, while 8.5 million or 90.3 percent of the 9.4 million target children were inoculated with a measles-rubella shot.

Unicef, however, said that there were still 1.5 million children to date who have not received or completed their vaccination against polio.

It also said 67 out of 81 provinces and 71 out of 96 cities in the country are at high risk of polio infection.

The humanitarian organization cited the following factors that have contributed to the rise of unvaccinated children: past governance challenges, persistent missed opportunities, low demand for services, and disruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic itself.

Acknowledging the impact of the pandemic on vaccination efforts, Vergeire said last year that the number of children who received the complete basic life-saving routine immunization in 2020 was around 1.3 million, which was 61.5 percent of the eligible population for vaccination.

She noted that “this is more than 30 percent below the national target even with vaccines being accessible and available during community quarantine periods.”

Unicef said it “recommends increasing human resources for health in local government units to improve service delivery, supervision, monitoring, and evaluation.”

The organization further suggested increasing vaccination visits and developing proper service delivery mechanisms.

“Access to services must be improved especially for those in far-flung areas [which] are discouraged [from getting] their children vaccinated because of transportation and other costs,” Unicef said.

—WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH

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