The Department of Health (DOH) reported Wednesday, March 3, that it has observed an increase in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases nationwide but noted that the healthcare utilization rate is still in the “safe zone.”
“The plateauing trend seen in the past month was broken by a spike in new COVID cases this week nationally,” said Dr. Althea de Guzman, medical specialist at the DOH Epidemiology Bureau during a media forum on Wednesday, March 3.
“Subalit ganun pa man at tumataas ang ating mga kaso, ang ating health system capacity ay sapat. Ang ating mga regional healthcare utilization rates are all in the safe zone (However, as our cases increase, our health system capacity is still enough. Our regional healthcare utilization rates are all in the safe zone),” she added.
De Guzman said that they monitored the increasing number of new cases particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR), Central Visayas, and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
“Meron tayong tatlong lugar na pina-flag. Una ang NCR na nakakaranas ngayon ng (We are flagging three areas. First is NCR that is currently experiencing a) 55 percent increase in reported cases; followed by Region 7 at 49.66 percent, and CAR at almost 12 percent,” she said.
“Sa NCR, nakakakita din tayo ng tuloy tuloy na pagtaas ng kaso halos sa lahat ng kanyang mga lugar. Sa lahat ng cities and municipalities natin (In NCR, we are also seeing a steady increase in cases in almost all of its areas. In almost of its cities and municipalities),” she added.
To curb the increasing number of new cases and to avoid overwhelming the health system’s capacity, De Guzman said that local government units should strictly implement the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treatment-Reintegration (PDITR) strategy.
“Nirerekomenda namin ang mga granular or localized lockdown para ma-limit yung mobility ng tao at mas mabilis tayong makapag responde (We recommend the implementation of granular or localized lockdowns to limit people’s mobility and so we can respond more quickly),” she added.