No room for complacency despite decline in Covid-19 cases: DOH

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday advised the public to remain vigilant and to strictly follow the health protocols despite the decrease in new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Saturday said 93 areas nationwide are still under alert level 4, meaning their hospital utilization rate is at 70 percent or higher.

In Metro Manila alone, she said hospitals are still full, with an average intensive care unit utilization rate of 76 percent.

“[A]ng bilin natin sa ating mga kababayan, we cannot be complacent at this point. Kailangan ituloy-tuloy natin ang ginagawa natin para patuloy na ma-decongest ang mga ospital (We are reminding everyone that we cannot be complacent at this point. We must continue what we are doing now to decongest the hospitals),” she said.

She said the DOH is trying to determine whether the decrease in cases was due to the shift to the alert levels system or an effect of the previous stricter community quarantines.

“In the past experience, makikita natin talaga na bababa ang kaso kapag may ginawa tayong mahigpit na restriction in about three to four weeks. So, tingnan natin in the coming weeks kung magtutuloy talaga ‘yong trend ng pagbaba (In the past, we experience a decline in new cases when we impose stricter restrictions in about three to four weeks. So we will see in the coming weeks if this downward trend will continue),” she said.

She added that the DOH has yet to conclude if the decline in cases is artificial or already the peak starting to flatten.

“[K]inukumpleto pa natin ang datos ukol doon sa mga factors that may have affected itong pag-decrease ng lab outputs natin in the past days (We are still trying to complete our data based on the factors that may have affected the decrease in our lab outputs in the past days),” she said.

Last week, Vergeire admitted that there were issues in laboratory outputs and cautioned the public when interpreting the current data.

She said the DOH will include the rapid antigen test results in its daily case bulletin by next week as the agency is still validating and completing its data.