The Philippines on Monday announced 6,835 new COVID-19 cases, the seventh straight day the tally remained below 10,000, data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed, as the government began vaccinating children ages 5 to 11 against the coronavirus.
The positivity rate has declined to 19.1 percent, based on test results of samples from 36,773 people on Feb. 5, Saturday.
The Philippine National Police (PNP), meanwhile, reported that areas under granular lockdown increased from 590 to 605.
As of Sunday, 384 of these areas were in Cordillera, 130 in Ilocos, 77 in Cagayan, eight in Mimaropa, and six in the National Capital Region, the PNP said.
A total of 1,233 people were affected by the restrictions.
There were 116,720 active cases, 7,806 of which were asymptomatic; 103,900 were mild; 3,184 were moderate; 1,495were severe; and 335 were critical.
There were 12 new deaths reported, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 54,538.
The DOH said 16,330 people recovered on Monday, bringing total recoveries to 3,445,129.
Nationwide, 41 percent of intensive care unit beds nationwide were in use while 21 percent of mechanical ventilators were being used.
In Metro Manila, 33 percent of ICU beds were in use while 19 percent of ventilators were in use.
An infectious disease expert on Monday warned that it was “too early” and “too drastic” for Metro Manila to shift to the lowest of five COVID-19 alert levels.
Dr. Rontgene Solante, head of the Adult Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine unit of the San Lazaro Hospital, said authorities should instead monitor if cases will further decline “in the next two weeks.”
“In my opinion, we still need to stay in Alert Level 2. It’s too early and I think it’s too drastic to change to a lower alert level like 1,” Solante said in a televised public briefing.
“Remember, the cases we are seeing are still high, the infection rate is still high. And we need to be vigilant about these numbers,” Solante said.
Metro Manila shifted to Alert 2 from Alert 3 from Feb. 1 until 15.
This allowed businesses to raise their operating capacity by 20 percent, said Trade Undersecretary Ruth Castelo.
Also on Monday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano shot down a proposal from presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion that areas with high vaccination rates should require people to present COVID-19 booster cards in Metro Manila establishments.
Ano said that while the government is already administering booster shots, the priority is still to inoculate the unvaccinated.
