Metro Manila recorded a sharp rise in new COVID-19 cases, which are also on the rise in the rest of Luzon and the Visayas, the Department of Health said Wednesday.
The National Capital Region registered 456 daily new cases in the last seven days and its positivity rate has increased to 4.4 percent, said Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
Nearby provinces, the rest of Luzon, and the Visayas showed an increase in cases that was less than 80 per day, Vergeire said, while Mindanao remains “on a low plateau.”
The national COVID positivity rate, she said, increased to 3.1 percent.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Wednesday said there is a possibility that COVID-19 infections in the NCR may peak as high as 2,000 cases a day by the middle or end of July.
Duque, in an interview with radio dzBB, said an Australian monitoring group said that the cases in NCR may reach 800 to 1,200 a day by the end of June or the first week of July. That could peak at 1,500 to 2,000 by mid-July or end of July, he said.
OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said Tuesday that NCR’s growth rate of COVID-19 cases has further increased to 72 percent, but its hospital utilization rate remains “low” at 22 percent.
But the DOH said it was monitoring the increase in hospital admissions in six areas in the country due to COVID-19.
Four of the areas are in Metro Manila, one is in Calabarzon, and one is in Northern Mindanao, Vergeire said.
She said, however, that the DOH is prepared to handle an increase in hospital admissions.
“We are ready. We have been prepared and we have experienced this kind of increase in COVID-19 cases in the past. Our hospitals and local governments already know what they will do in this kind of situation,” she said in Filipino.
Vergeire also reported 32 new cases of the more transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.5, bringing the total to 43.
She said 21 were from Western Visayas, four were from Calabarzon, four were from the National Capital Region, and three were from Central Luzon.
Of the cases from Western Visayas, Vergeire said nine were from a workplace cluster while three were from a household cluster.
Thirty of the cases are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, one is partially vaccinated, while the vaccination status of one case is still being verified.
Vergeire said 22 cases developed mild symptoms, five were asymptomatic, while the status of the remaining cases is still being verified.
Sixteen cases have, meanwhile, recovered, 14 are still undergoing isolation, and the agency is still looking into the quarantine status of two cases.
Vergeire said no new cases of the BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariant were detected.
