The Department of Health (DoH) said it has observed a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in several areas of the country which can be attributed to the recent holiday activities.

“Actually dito sa mga nakikita natin sa ngayon, outside of Metro Manila po talaga nakikita natin ang medyo pagtaas ng kaso at atin pong binabantayan (With our current observation, we saw that there is an increase in cases outside Metro Manila and we are closely monitoring this),” said DoH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.

“One of our major assumptions would be ito pa rin po ‘yung epekto ng holiday. Kung matatandaan ninyo, nung nag-holiday tayo, nag-uwian po ang ating mga kababayan sa kani-kanilang probinsya, nagkaroon siguro ng pagka-salo salo and celebrations (One of our major assumptions would be the effect of the holiday. During the holiday, some of our citizens went home to the provinces and probably had gatherings or celebrations). And all of these things might have contributed to the increase in the number of cases in the other areas,” she added.

Vergeire said that they observed an increase in the number of cases in Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, Bicol region, Central Visayas, Davao region, Socsargen, and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Aside from the holiday activities, the implementation of the minimum health standards may have also contributed on the spike in cases, said Vergeire.

“Although hindi naman natin sinasabi na iyan lang ang factor (holiday season). Meron pa rin factor of course ‘yung pagpapatupad natin ng health protocols (Although we are not saying that is the only factor. There is still a factor, of course, in our implementation of health protocols),” she said.

Meanwhile, the DoH announced 1,783 new COVID cases Thursday.

Quezon City had the most number of new cases with 99, Rizal with 83, Manila with 78, Bulacan with 69, and Cavite with 66.

The country now has 507,717 cases. Of this figure, 30,126 are active cases, the DoH said.

Of the active cases, 84.8 percent have mild symptoms, eight percent are asymptomatic, 4.4 percent are in critical condition, 2.5 percent have severe symptoms, and 0.40 percent have moderate symptoms.

It added that 500 more patients recovered, bringing the recovery count to 467,475. There were also 74 additional COVID-related deaths, pushing the total to 10,116.