COVID-19 CASES DOWN, BUT STILL OVER 1,000

The country’s fresh caseload dipped slightly to 1,243 on Friday, the second straight day that it remained above 1,000, but the Department of Health (DOH) said its senior officials, who have accumulated experience over the past two years, could manage the response on public health matters.

“Our current pandemic response protocols continue to be implemented. Everything is status quo until new directives from our new President come in,” the DOH said in a statement on Saturday. President Marcos has not named a new health secretary.

Latest data from COVID-19 tracker showed daily coronavirus infections were down by 5 percent from Thursday’s 1,309, which was the highest in about four months.

This brought active cases, or the number of individuals currently infected with the virus, to 8,706. Total cases, meanwhile, stood at 3,705,649.

But according to DOH projections, the daily case tally could reach as high as 5,362 by July 15 if compliance with minimum public health standards, such as masking and physical distancing, were reduced by 22 percent.

Under the same scenario, new cases may peak at 22,187 by the end of the month, but the DOH maintained that hospitalizations remained at low risk in all areas, except in Lucena City and Bohol province which were identified as moderate risk and Tawi-Tawi, which is classified as critical risk.

The number of deaths caused by COVID-19 averaged to just one per day in May, a drastic drop from January at the height of the Omicron surge when deaths averaged 62 daily.

The DOH said Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the new head of the National Vaccination Operation Center, was rethinking policies to identify areas for revision, including the possibility of including COVID-19 jabs to routine immunization.

Intensifying the jabbing campaign in areas with low coverage of first boosters is also a priority.