Daily Covid-19 cases may dip below 100 by mid-March: DOH

MANILA – The daily coronavirus cases may further decrease below 100 as early as March 15 if the public continues to strictly follow the health and safety protocols, the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.

From 2,000 to more than 3,000 daily cases to date, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the numbers could dip further to 83, citing projections of the FASSSTER (Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-temporal Epidemiological Modeler for Early Detection of Diseases) team.

The projection is based on the current known characteristics of the Omicron variant and other factors such as mobility, vaccination coverage and compliance with protocols.

“[K]ung ang pagsunod natin sa minimum public health standards ay mapapabayaan, ang projected cases ay maaring manatiling mataas — nasa 2,077 cases ang inaasahan na bilang na kaso kung may 12 percent decrease sa ating pag-comply sa minimum public health standards at maari pang tumaas (If compliance to the minimum public health standards go down by 12 percent, the cases would remain high at 2,077),” Vergeire said in a virtual media briefing.

The figures could balloon to 7,748 cases per day if compliance further decreases to 19 percent, she added.

The average daily cases in the past seven days are 3,521, signaling a continued decline in infections across the country.

Vergeire said most of the regions in the Philippines are at low-risk case classification except for Regions 6, 11, 12, and the Cordillera Administrative Region, which are under moderate risk.

The national healthcare systems capacity is also at low risk except for Region 11, where the intensive care utilization rate is still 63.9 percent, putting it at moderate.

To date, more than 61.6 million have completed their Covid-19 vaccine doses, while some 61.2 million people are still waiting for their second shot. A total of 9,161,128 people have also received their booster dose as of February 14.

Over 148,000 children ages five to 11 years old have also received their primary doses since the rollout of pediatric vaccination.