The Philippines has rejoined anew the pandemic high risk classification following the surge in Covid-19 infections as it entered 2022.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the epidemic curve shows the current average daily cases have increased significantly by 570% from December 27, 2021 to January 2, 2022. This is seven times higher than the figures in previous weeks.
“Nationally we are now at high-risk case classification from low-risk case class in the previous week showing a positive two-week growth rate at 222 percent, and a “moderate risk average daily attack rate of 1.07 case for every 100,000 individuals,” Vergeire said in a media forum.
Latest DOH data showed that the regions are showing signs of increase in cases while the National Capital Region (NCR) shows a sharp uptick in cases in the recent weeks.
Vergeire said the health systems capacity in the region remains 50% utilization while the national beds capacity is at low risk with total utilization at 18% and ICU (intensive care unit) beds utilization at 22%. The five regions with positive one week growth rate and two-week growth rate include Region 4-A (Calabarzon), Region 3, Region 9, Region 11 and Region 10. These regions have low to moderate risk case classification.
She added that the other regions showed positive increasing cases only in the recent one week, and healthcare utilization rate in all regions remains at low risk level.