As coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases continue to rise, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) warned the public against letting their guard down especially during the Holy Week.
“Next week, we will likely see the number of daily COVID-19 cases go down because people will probably not be testing as much during Holy Week, but we must not be fooled by this,” PRC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Senator Richard Gordon said in a statement on Friday, March 26.
Anticipating the temptation by people to congregate during the upcoming Holy Week, Gordon warned that “rate of positivity remains dangerously high so we must continue to be vigilant about the safety measures we are taking.”
The country has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases in last several weeks - with PRC data showing an increase in the percentage of positive cases per batch of tests taken this week as compared to the positivity rate in previous months.
“We are seeing now that 23% of the tests come out positive, whereas from April 2020 until early March, we were in single digit percentages, the highest being 9% last August,” Gordon said.
This 23% positivity rate, he added, is the “highest we have ever seen at the PRC since the start of the pandemic, and it tells us that the virus is spreading unabated.”
The Department of Health (DOH) on March 26 reported 9,838 additional infections in the country - bringing the number the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 702,856.