The Philippines is now considered "high-risk" for the spread of COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) warned Monday.
"Nationally, our case classification is now at high-risk," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press briefing.
Vergeire said the growth rate of coronavirus cases in the country increased to 42 percent in the past two weeks.
From July 26 to Aug. 8, 2021, the country's average daily attack rate (ADAR) per 100,000 population was at 7.20.
ADAR is the number of new cases over a two-week period, divided by the population.
Metro Manila, Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Calabarzon, Central Visayas, and Northern Mindanao were among regions tagged as "high-risk.”
The Philippines logged on 8,900 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total number of infections to 1,667,714.
Six new fatalities brought the COVID-19 death toll to 29,128.
The DOH also reported 7,937 persons who recently recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 1,560,106.
There were 78,480 active cases, of which 94 percent were mild, 2.1 percent were asymptomatic, 1 percent were critical, 1.7 percent were severe, and 1.18 percent were moderate.
This number of active cases was the highest since Aug. 8, which recorded 7,516.
Nationwide, 65 percent of the ICU beds, 55 percent of the isolation beds, 56 percent of the ward beds, and 47 percent of the ventilators, were in use.
In Metro Manila, 67 percent of the ICU beds, 55 percent of the isolation beds, 57 percent of the ward beds, and 50 percent of the ventilators, were in use.
A total of 236 health facilities nationwide, 25 of which are in Metro Manila, have registered a critical-risk health care utilization rate (HCUR) of 85 percent or higher as the country battles a fresh spike in cases, the DOH said.
Vergeire said the HCUR refers to the occupancy of isolation, ward, and intensive care unit beds, as well as the utilization of mechanical ventilators.
The DOH also reported that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus has been detected in all 17 areas in Metro Manila.
Meanwhile, Vergeire said the DOH has been continuously hiring health workers since cases increased in March this year.
Some 4,851 health workers were hired in the past four months.
“We have reached 97 percent of our target number of hires across all regions,” she said.
Vergeire said the target number of hires is estimated based on the needs of each area, adding that a recomputation will be done to account for the Delta variant.
The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) earlier said the number of health workers hired by the DOH is “way below” the promise of President Rodrigo Duterte in his 2020 State of the Nation Address to hire 20,000 health workers this year.
The group previously said a random survey it conducted found that most government hospitals have a shortage of 40 to 50 nurses based on bed capacity.
The management of St. Luke's Medical Center (SLMC) on Monday announced that its ward and intensive care units in both branches in Taguig City and Quezon City have reached full capacity.
In an advisory, SLMC officials advised those seeking urgent medical treatment to consider other medical facilities as their hospitals still had patients in line at the emergency rooms.
"Be assured that we will keep the public updated. For now, we appeal to everyone to help prevent the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the community by continuously adhering to health and safety protocols," the hospital management stated.
The Health department said 25 other hospitals in the National Capital Region are now in critical levels of health care occupancy rate amid the spike in cases.
In Pasay City, the local government reported that the intensive care units for persons infected with COVID-19 at the Pasay City General Hospital are now at 60 percent capacity.
The hospital management, however, said the facility remains in full service for non-COVID-19 cases.
PCGH Officer in Charge Dr. John Victor de Gracia said the hospital is still accepting non-COVID patients for surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. He said the facility gives priority to residents of Pasay for admission for both COVID-19 and non-COVID cases.
The DOH said the increase in COVID-19 cases was being experienced across all age groups and not just children.
The DOH said there was an overall 59 percent increase in cases among all age groups during the period of July 13 to 25 compared with July 26 to August 8.
Among the age groups, the highest increase was observed among the 30 to 39 age group and lowest among those 80 years old and above during the same period.
The department also said that the COVID-19 national vaccination program is following priority groups to allocate COVID-19 vaccines to those who need them the most due to the global scarcity of vaccine supplies. As of Aug. 7, the government has fully vaccinated 11.2 million people.
“We continue to call on the eligible population groups to get vaccinated. To all adults already eligible for vaccination, please register with your local government units for immediate vaccination while children are not yet being vaccinated. By vaccinating yourselves, you are also protecting the children as you will shield them from possible COVID-19 infection,” Vergeire said.
The more infectious Delta variant of COVID-19 has been recorded in 13 of the country’s 17 regions, the DOH said.
The National Capital Region (NCR) has the most cases of the Delta variant with 146 cases, Vergeire said.
The others are: Calabarzon (47), Central Luzon (39), Central Visayas (37) and Western Visayas (36).
Of the country's 450 cases, as of Aug. 5, 426 patients have recovered while 10 have died.
The country currently has 13 active cases of the Delta variant, while one case was still being verified.
Of those infected, 83 were not inoculated against COVID-19. Thirty-five had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while one got just the first jab.
The agency is still verifying the vaccination status of the remaining 315 cases.
The Philippine Genome Center has so far sequenced 10,473 samples, of which, 2,362 were found to be positive for the Beta variant (first detected in South Africa), 2,093 for the Alpha variant (first detected in the UK), two of the Gamma variant (first detected in Brazil), and 287 of the P.3 variant (first detected in the Philippines).
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) opposed the suggestion of removing fixed checkpoints and setting up random ones in Metro Manila.
DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the department would discuss the matter with Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Guillermo Eleazar, who made the suggestion.
Earlier, Eleazar said they are considering removing checkpoints in Metro Manila, which are causing chokepoints and heavy traffic conditions. He said the police should be deployed in areas where they are needed more such as in vaccination sites and areas where cash assistance was distributed.
But Malaya said the checkpoints were needed to enforce curfew and stay-at-home orders.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Monday assured the public of the proper implementation of the rules and ordinances by authorities tasked to enforce health and safety protocols in areas covered by the enhanced community quarantine to control the spread of the COVID-19 and its variants.
Guevarra’s statement came after the PNP revealed that more than 20,000 quarantine violators have so far been arrested during the first three days of the ECQ period.
The PNP said 353 of the accosted quarantine violators will face formal charges for violation of curfew hours being implemented in Metro Manila. The National Capital Region posted the highest number of quarantine violators with 4,394.