DOH reports drop in average daily new Covid-19 infections

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday the average daily new infections decreased to 9,556 this week, down by 1,302 from the 10,858 seven-day moving average last week.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire attributed the decline in the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases to the localized lockdowns, the National Capital Region Plus bubble, and the recent declaration of enhanced community quarantine to curb the spike.

Vergeire assured that the government would continue to monitor and strengthen efforts to sustain this decrease.

“Gusto natin bantayan pa rin po itong nakikita natin at ayaw pa rin po nating maging complacent tayong lahat para magtuloy-tuloy na po ito sa pagbaba (We will monitor this because we don’t want everyone to be complacent so that we’ll be able to sustain this downward trend),” she said in the weekly Laging Handa briefing.

Vergeire reiterated the need to expand testing for Covid-19 by conducting more house-to-house visits to immediately identify those who are sick.

“So by doing this, iyong pagti-test po natin is still targeted. Pupunta tayo sa mga bahay kung sino po iyong dapat nating i-test because they have symptoms or they were exposed. Iyon po ang iti-test natin. But this is not mass testing (By doing this, it’s still targeted, we will go to the house of those who need to be tested because they have symptoms or were exposed. But this is not mass testing),” she said.

Meanwhile, Vergeire acknowledged that many hospitals continue to struggle amid the overwhelming number of Covid-19 patients and lack of beds to accommodate them.

In the briefing, she assured that the government is working to further expand the bed capacity.

“We are expanding our beds. So nakapagdagdag na tayo ng mga ICU (intensive care unit) beds, pati po iyong mga isolation beds natin ay nakapagdagdag na rin tayo (We’ve already added ICU beds, including ones for isolation),” she said.