The country’s daily new COVID-19 cases will continue to rise in the coming days or weeks, the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday, a day after it tallied a record-high 18,332 new infections.
DOH spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the effect of the two-week lockdown in Metro Manila might be seen within two to three weeks.
“According to our projections, we will see the continuous rise ofactive cases in the coming days or maybe weeks,” she said in Filipino on ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
“Now that local governments are doing active case finding, we will see our cases rise in the initial weeks,” she said.
Meanwhile, according to the head of ABS-CBN News Data Analytics, the country is poised to have more than 1.9 million total COVID-19 cases before the end of August and 2 million by early September.
“In terms of cases, definitely I can see that we’ll breach 1.9 million total before the end of the month, and then 2 million total cases by early September,” Edson Guido told ANC’s “Dateline Philippines” on Tuesday.
Guido noted that cases have been rising faster in the country where, officials said, community transmission of the more transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant is already assumed.
“Actually from 1.7 million to 1.8 million cases, it only took 8 days.
And that’s the fastest additional 100,000 cases for the country. But what we’re seeing now is that the next 100,000 is likely to be even faster,” he said.
Local governments must shorten the time to find new cases and isolate them to cut community transmission, and test all symptomatic and exposed close contacts, Vergeire said.
It is also important for the public to comply with minimum public health standards and get vaccinated against COVID-19 when eligible, she said.
Despite record highs in new cases, the Palace said the country is on track in its battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila was expected to keep cases below 20,000, said Palace spokesman Harry Roque.
"We are within projection, for as long as we do not exceed 20,000 [new cases] per day. That is the projection," he said in a press briefing.
“If you are thinking that ECQ will result in a drastic reduction in cases, that is not the projection…. I would say we are on track.”
The Philippines logged 12,067 new COVID-10 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections to 1,869,691.
The DOH said the relatively low number was due to lower laboratory output on Sunday.
There were 303 new fatalities, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 32,264.
The DOH also reported 14,565 persons who recently recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 1,709,724.
There were 127,703 active cases, of which 95.5 percent were mild, 1.7 percent were asymptomatic, 0.6 percent were critical, 1.2 percent were severe, and 0.93 percent were moderate.
This was the 10th straight day that active cases counted over 100,000.
Nationwide, 73 percent of the ICU beds, 62 percent of the isolation beds, 67 percent of the ward beds, and 53 percent of the ventilators, were in use.
In Metro Manila, 74 percent of the ICU beds, 62 percent of the isolation beds, 72 percent of the ward beds, and 60 percent of the ventilators, were in use.
The DOH also reported 466 additional cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19, bringing the total to 1,273 cases.
Of the additional cases, 442 were local, while 14 were returning overseas Filipinos.
In other developments:
* The DOH said it has been discussing with experts the possible shortening of the quarantine period for fully vaccinated medical workers exposed to COVID-19 to seven days. Vergeire said this would mean the health workers would not be gone from the hospital for 14 days.
* A Health official said COVID-19 transmission could occur in the workplace where co-workers gather or have meals together. DOH Disease Prevention and Control Bureau director Nikka Hao said that while most COVID-19 transmission is still “community- or household-based,” they have been receiving more reports of workplace transmission.
* The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila announced on Tuesday that it would temporarily stop accepting patients in its emergency room to focus on admitted COVID-19 patients. In an advisory, the hospital said 100 of the 230 admitted patients were COVID-19 patients, many of whom need intensive care, high-flow oxygen, and ventilators.