All areas in Metro Manila are now classified as either high-risk or critical risk for COVID-19, the Department of Health said Friday as the disease continued to spread and hospital beds filled up, and the country hit a four-month high in both the number of new infections and active cases.
Norman Cruz
The Department of Health (DOH) put under Alert Level 4 the cities of Las Piñas, Malabon, Makati, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, San Juan, Quezon City, Taguig, and Valenzuela and the municipality of Pateros.
Under Alert Level 3 were Caloocan, Pasig, Mandaluyong, Manila, Pasay and Parañaque.
Navotas and Pateros were classified as a critical risk in terms of two-week virus growth rate at 352.25 percent and 266.35 percent, respectively.
Hospitals in both cities are also 100 percent full according to the DOH.
Intensive care units in nine Metro Manila areas are over 70 percent full.
Quezon City still has the most number of active COVID-19 cases at 4,453, followed by the City of Manila with 3,081, and Makati City with 2,012 patients.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the National Capital Region (NCR) continued to post a rise in its two-week growth rate and a high-risk average daily attack rate (ADAR).
Alert Level 4 means an area has been classified as moderate- to critical-risk and has a health care utilization rate higher than 70 percent.
NCR is under enhanced community quarantine – the strictest among quarantine classification – for two weeks, from Aug. 6 to 20. Under ECQ, only essential trips and services are allowed.
The government placed the NCR under ECQ in light of the threat posed by the more infectious Delta coronavirus variant.
Other areas under Alert Level 4 are: the Cordillera Administrative Region: Apayao, Baguio City, Benguet; Region 1: Dagupan City, Ilocos Norte; Region 2: Cagayan, Quirino; Region 3: Angeles City, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Olongapo City, Zambales; Region 4A: Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, Lucena City, Rizal; Region 5: Naga City, Masbate; Region 6: Aklan, Antique, Guimaras, Iloilo, Iloilo City; Region 7: Bohol, Cebu, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City, Siquijor; Region 8: Ormoc City, Tacloban City; Region 10: Bukidnon, Cagayan De Oro City, Camiguin, Lanao Del Norte, Misamis Oriental; Region 12: Cotabato (North Cotabato), General Santos City, South Cotabato; and Caraga: Agusan del Sur.
The Philippines averaged 10,459 new cases per day from August 6 to 12, a jump from its average of 7,987 in the week before, with “a new peak [in infections] set weekly,” said Vergeire.
The Philippines is still classified as a high-risk area for COVID-19 after logging a two-week case growth rate of 60 percent, ADAR of 8.37 cases per 100,000 population, a health care utilization rate of 58.81 percent, and an ICU occupancy rate of 68.08 percent.
The Philippines logged 13,177 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the total number of infections to 1,713,302.
It was the highest daily infections reported since April 2 when over 15,000 new cases were logged, the DOH said.
The DOH also reported 96,395 active cases, also the highest since April 9.
There were 299 new fatalities on Friday, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 29,838.
The DOH also reported 4,322 persons who recently recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 1,587,069.
Of the active cases, 95.8 percent were mild, 1 percent were asymptomatic, 0.8 percent were critical, 1.4 percent were severe, 0.97 percent were moderate.
Nationwide, 66 percent of ICU beds, 58 percent of isolation beds, 60 percent of ward beds, and 51 percent of ventilators, were in use.
In Metro Manila, 60 percent of ICU beds, 60 percent of isolation beds, 61 percent of ward beds, and 54 percent of ventilators, were in use.
A pandemic analyst said infections were spreading exponentially.
Prof. Jomar Rabajante, of the University of the Philippines COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team, in an interview on Teleradyo, said daily cases could reach up to 19,000 if the upward trend continues.
He said that the country was seeing a resurgence of coronavirus that could be fueled by the more contagious Delta variant.
The Philippines has a positivity rate of more than 20 percent, which means that 1 out of 5 tested was positive for the virus, he said.
Nationwide figures for the reproduction number or daily growth estimate in COVID-19 cases in the country are also estimated to be more than 1, Rabajante said.
This means on average each infected person will infect more than one other person they come in contact with.
“This means that [COVID-19] cases in the Philippines are increasing exponentially,” he said.
He said the Philippines will continue to experience an increase in COVID-19 cases in the next few days as the effect of the hard lockdown will not be felt immediately.
“We could reach 13,000, 14,000 cases in the next few days,” he said. “We have a projection that in just a few days, we might reach 18,000, 19,000 cases if this trend continues.”
The Delta variant was first identified in India and has become the dominant strain of coronavirus in the world. It is supposedly 60 to 100 percent more transmissible than the original COVID-19 strain from Wuhan, China.
With over 1.7 million coronavirus infections and more than 29,000 deaths, the Philippines has the second-worst coronavirus outbreak in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. It currently has 96,395 active cases of COVID-19.
Rabajante called on the government to not just focus its interventions in the capital region as most infections were reported in other provinces.
Rabajante said the government should also accelerate its vaccination rollout in other areas such as Cebu and Davao aside from Metro Manila.
The Quezon City government has expanded its HOPE community care facilities to accommodate more children who tested positive for COVID-19 and their families or guardians.
Dr. Esperanza Arias, City Health Department chief, said the city government recently procured additional beds, oxygen tanks and medicines for all 11 of the city’s COVID facilities.
She said “family rooms” are being added across all HOPE facilities to accommodate more COVID-positive children as well as their families who may also be COVID positive or their guardians who will look after them.
The city government is recruiting more staff as the opening of three more HOPE facilities is underway.
Data from the City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) showed that 9 percent or 318 of COVID cases recorded between Aug. 1 and 7 were children aged 17 and below.
At least 169 or 5 percent are aged 0 to 11, while 149 or 4 percent come from the 12 to 17 years old age group.
The total number of cases during this period is 293 percent higher than the 81 recorded positive cases among children fromJuly 1 to July 7.
“One factor that cause these infections among children could be the improper way by which COVID-positive adults quarantine themselves. There are those who stay at home and do not self-report to CESU,” CESU chief Dr. Rolando Cruz said.
“We’re continuously ramping up our contact tracing efforts so every household will be safe, especially young children who are not yet able to follow minimum health protocols on their own,” he said.
“But ultimately, we need everyone’s cooperation. We are appealing to anyone who is experiencing symptoms to please inform CESU immediately,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) now has dedicated 76 percent of its bed capacity to COVID-19 patients, its spokesperson said Friday.
“If COVID-19 cases are low, only around 35 percent of the operational capacity is dedicated to COVID patients. But as cases increase, we also increase the percentage of the beds allotted to them,” LCP spokesperson Dr. Norberto Francisco said at the Laging Handa briefing.
“As of now, we are at 76 percent dedicated to COVID-19 patients, and this is about the highest. We could not raise it up to 100 percent because it is the mandate of the Lung Center to treat all kinds of lung diseases,” Francisco said in a mix of Filipino and English.
Francisco said the effects of the enhanced community quarantine have yet to be felt in LCP’s admissions and its health care capacity due to a two-week lag in ECQ implementation.
“This has something to do with the incubation period of the virus,” he said.
Currently, LCP has 135 admitted COVID patients, Francisco said.