The Philippines had by far the highest number of new COVID-19 cases Monday in the Western Pacific Region, more than double the next country in line, data from the World Health Organization showed.
The Philippines logged 3,356 new infections Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported, five more than the WHO tally for the country.
This was more than double the 1,529 new cases in Malaysia, and almost five times the third highest count in Japan, with 679.
The WHO data showed the Philippines also had the highest number of total cases among Western Pacific countries, with 597,763 cases, and the highest number of deaths, at 12,521.
Japan, with 440,671 infections, had a death toll of 8,299. Malaysia, with 314,989 cases, had total fatalities of 1,177.
China, where the virus was first reported, had a total of 102,125 cases and total deaths of 4,848.
WHO’s country representative to the Philippines Rabindra Abeyasinghe said the recent rise in cases in the Philippines was a spike in the current epidemic wave.
“I wouldn’t classify this as a second wave because if you're talking of a second wave we should have seen a complete flattening of the curve. And in the case of NCR (National Capital Region), we didn't see that kind of flattening,” Abeyasinghe said during a briefing.
“We always knew that there was quite a big chain of transmission although the numbers went down at some stage to 300-400 on a daily basis. That still reflected significant levels of transmission in the community so it would rather be another spike in the ongoing wave.
There's actually no value in classifying it as a second wave,” he said.
The WHO official said they have been seeing community-level transmission of the coronavirus in Metro Manila, Region 3 and Region 4A for the last few months.
But he said the 3,000 cases being recorded daily was much lower than the 6,000 or more at the height of the epidemic last year.
He said the increase in transmission means everyone must strengthen health protocols on the ground and that the public must be reminded to comply with requirements such as the wearing of face masks and physical distancing.
“We really want the local leadership to lead in this effort, so that we can ensure that we don't have to go back to a situation that we had last July, August, when we have to go to more larger level lockdowns, and quarantining of populations,” he said.
President Duterte appealed to the public Monday night to wear masks and maintain physical distancing.
“Please help us, just follow the government’s advice and we could lower the virus cases,” he added.
Reducing the rate of infection will help the government “effectively combat” emerging COVID-19 variants, Duterte said.
Enforcing the law, he said, is also crucial in managing the pandemic, especially “for those who do not believe” as well as citizens who do not observe social distancing.
The Philippines logged on Tuesday 2,668 new COVID-19 cases as eight laboratories were unable to submit their data on time, the DOH said.
Seven new fatalities brought the death toll to 12,528, which is 2.09 percent of the total number of cases.
The DOH also reported that 171 patients recently recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 546,078, which is 90.9 percent of the total.
That left 41,822 active cases, which is 7 percent of the total number of cases. Of the active cases, 91.6 percent are mild; 3.9 percent are asymptomatic; 1.8 percent are critical; 1.9 percent are severe; and 0.80 percent are moderate.
A member of the OCTA Research Team on Tuesday said the daily new cases of COVID-19 in the National Capital Region (NCR) may reach 5,000 by March 31. This, as the projected reproduction number may have alread increased, OCTA said.
OCTA Research’s Dr. Guido David, in an interview on GMA News, said the estimated reproduction number or Rt may have already increased to 1.8.
“Actual cases are now beating projections. The reproduction number in NCR is estimated to be around 1.8. This surge is increasing faster than we thought,” David said.
At that rate, he said, there could be more than 4,000 cases a day by March 31, and this could even reach 5,000 a day.
David said they are receiving reports that most of these cases were transmitted within families or households.
Some of the cases were reported in depressed communities as well as in offices.
On Sunday, the OCTA Research group said the reproduction rate for the period of Feb. 28 to March 6 went up to 1.66 in Metro Manila.
"The last time the region had seen this rate of increase was in July 2020," OCTA Research group then said.
The group then identified four areas in NCR that are at high risk for COVID-19 based on attack rate—Pasay City, Makati City, Malabon and Navotas.
Several hospitals in NCR have reported an upward trend in COVID-19 cases admitted over the past weeks.
Among these are Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine General Hospital, Ospital ng Makati and Makati Medical Center.
Private hospitals on Monday said that while they can still handle the recent increase in COVID-19 cases, the public should not let its guard down when observing health protocols, as even children are now getting sick with the virus.
Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAPi) president Dr. Jose Rene De Grano said the reason for the 10 percent to 15 percent rise in COVID-19 occupancy rates in private hospitals cannot merely be the presence of the more infectious UK and South Africa variants.
Based on a Tugon ng Masa survey conducted by OCTA Research, there were fewer Filipinos observing social distancing than wearing face masks and face shields.
The results showed only 67 percent of Filipinos are observing social distancing, which is lower compared to the 91 percent who are wearing face masks and 82 percent who are wearing face shields.
“While majority of adult Filipinos comply with the minimum public health standards set by the Department of Health, [fewer] are able to observe social distancing,” OCTA said.
The number of COVID-19 cases has been going up at a faster rate lately with the past few days reporting over 3,000 new infections daily.
Lapses in compliance with safety protocols contributed to the spike in COVID-19 cases, the DOH said Monday, amid claims the rise in infections is being driven by coronavirus variants.
Also on Tuesday, the Department of Transportation has ordered the strict implementation of health protocols inside public transport vehicles and in terminals nationwide. Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade has directed all transport sectors to ensure that their respective enforcers and transport marshals assigned on the streets and in various transportation hubs are strictly enforcing the health protocols to stem the further spread of the virus. With PNA