Covid cases continue to rise in NCR, other regions–doh

The Department of health (DOH) on Friday reported that national and all regions in the country have registered continued rise in new Covid-19 infections in recent weeks with 88 percent of provinces, highly urbanized cities (hucs), and independent component cities (ICCS) across all island groups showing an upward growth in cases.

health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, however, stated in a report to the media on the Covid situation in the country as of July 1, these increases have “not” translated to increases in other metrics as average daily attack rates and hospital utilization rates remain at low risk in majority of these areas.

For June 25 to July 1, the DOH said that there are 6,399 new Covid cases, placing to 3,705,649 the total number of cases in the country as of July 1.

“Most areas show sharp increase in cases with National Capital Region [NCR] reaching almost 450 cases daily,” Vergeire said.

Vergeire said that Mindanao showed a slight uptick in mid-june 2022, “but currently shows signs of plateau with 50 cases per day.”

There are a total of 3,636,378 recoveries after 3,761 new recoveries were recorded.

“Severe and critical cases remain less than 1.5 percent among total hospital admissions nationally. Active case surveillance must be done to address these case increases, maintain minimal transmission, and keep severe and critical cases low,” Vergeire said.

Fifty-eight deaths were recorded. A total of 60,565 have died from Covid-19.

“Deaths on a continued decline from January peak, averaging about 1 death/day in May 2022,” the DOH official added.

National case trend

Vergeire said that national case trend show continuous increase with seven day moving average (DMA) cases, which is higher by 53 percent from the previous week.

“National weekly positivity rate increased to 6.0 percent,” she noted adding that NCR has a weekly positivity rate of 8.2 percent.

“NCR, Regions 4A, 4B, and 6 with positivity rates greater than or equal to 5 percent,” she said.

Vergeire reiterated, “National and all regions continue to show increases in cases but remain at low risk case classification with average daily attack rates at low risk; healthcare utilization rates also remain at low risk in all regions; national severe and critical admissions remain to be only about 1 percent of total hospital admissions.”

Areas outside NCR

Vergeire said that 89 (86 percent) of areas outside NCR report case has increased. Of these, 57 areas showed both positive oneweek growth rate (OWGR) and two-week growth rate (TWGR).

“Thirty-two remaining areas have either positive OWGR or TWGR; Lucena City, Bohol, and Tawi-tawi at moderate to critical risk health-care utilization; All areas have low risk average daily attack rates,” she said.

“As we maintain mobility, we must ensure safeguards such as vaccination and boosters as well as minimum public health standards remain in place,” Vergeire reminded.