Covid-19 cases begin to ‘peak’ in Philippines

The Philippines Department of Health (DOH) said today, to expect more Covid-19 cases to be recorded in the coming weeks, since the country was now beginning to see a ‘peak’ in the number of new cases. The number of positive cases have doubled in comparison to last week, while the daily average rate also shot up to 1.02. 

The Health Undersecretary, Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a recent interview that authorities have been closely monitoring the National Capital Region (NCR) where there has been a considerable increase at 70 percent in the number of Covid-19 cases. Speaking to a media agency she said, “right now what we're seeing is the number of cases are increasing rapidly, especially in the National Capital Region, and it looks like the start of the peak in the number of cases.” She further added that apart from NCR, DOH is also monitoring the rise in cases in the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Western Visayas, and Northern Mindanao.

The Health Undersecretary highlighted that the reasons for increase in the number of cases could be attributed to the decreasing immunity of vaccinated people and the arrival of new variants that are highly transmissible and contagious.

It should also be noted that Philippines has also been working hard on their vaccination program and statistics from National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) recently stated that 70 million Filipinos were fully vaccinated, whereas 74.8 million have received only one dose.