Daily COVID-19 cases could reach as high as 18,000 by Nov. 15, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the figure was based on its Oct. 11 projection, and does not yet factor in the recent detection of the Omicron XBB subvariant and XBC variant of the coronavirus.
“The low part for this would be 2,400 cases in a day and the high part, if there is a decline in the practice of minimum health standards, we can see as much as 18,000 cases per day by Nov. 15,” she said.
The government has since lifted the outdoor mask mandate and resumed in-person learning in schools.
Vergeire said the COVID-19 situation in the country has become “manageable.”
“I think we are going to that point where COVID becomes manageable because we have already prepared,” she said.
In the fight against COVID-19, the Philippines has the capacity to test, detect and isolate cases, sequence samples, and mobilize localities to vaccinate the public, she said.
“By next year, we still expect that we will have cases. But our hope is, because we continue to have vaccination, this will not be so severe that patients need to be hospitalized,” Vergeire said.
As of Oct. 17, more than 73.4 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Of this number, more than 20.3 million have received their first booster dose while over 3.2 million have had their second booster shots.
Despite the uptick in infections in most areas of the country, the Philippines is still at low risk from COVID-19, the DOH said.
From Oct. 11-17, the country logged 15,144 additional COVID-19 cases or an average of 2,163 daily infections.
In terms of health care system capacity, all areas are considered low-risk for total bed and ICU utilization rate, the agency added.
