While the Department of Health begins this week its monitoring of a possible surge in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases from the holiday revelries, it recorded 2,163 new cases Monday, bringing the nationwide count to 502,736.
The Health department said this week’s trend of cases will determine if the holiday revelries will result in a surge in cases.
Recoveries slightly rose to 465,988 with only two new recoveries reported on the same day.
Fourteen fatalities were recorded, taking the death toll to 9,909.
“We are looking at this week to see if definite na talaga ang trend ng pagtaas at sinasabing holiday surge is happening already,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
“This past week kita natin tumaas na. Last December average number ng cases per day was 1,000 to 1,300. Compared to last week na 1500 plus. We will have to see if this will continue so that we can determine if ito na talaga ang surge,” Vergeire added.
The Health official reminded that cases will not surge if the public continues to comply with the minimum health standards.
“We are expecting this surge because we have seen how people were somehow lax with the compliance to the health standards during the holiday activities,” she added.
The latest case bulletin showed that Davao City contributed the highest number of new cases Monday with 134, followed by Cagayan with 100, Quezon City with 99, Leyte with 93, and Cavite with 75.
Active cases are at 26,839. Of this 85.8 percent are mild cases, 6.1 percent are asymptomatic, 0.44 percent are moderate cases while 4.9 percent are in critical condition and 2.8 percent are severe cases.
The latest data also showed that at present, 59 percent of the intensive care units (ICU) dedicated for COVID-19 are available while 63 percent of the isolation beds set for cases of the disease are unoccupied.
It added that 72 percent of the ward beds for COVID-19 patients are available and 78 percent of ventilators are unused.