The Department of Health (DOH) advised the public not to be complacent despite the country's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case trend showing signs of decline.
Several areas in the country are still experiencing a high hospital occupancy rate, said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
"We still have 93 areas in alert level 4. Pag sinabi nating alert level 4, yung kanilang utilization ng kanilang ospital ay more than that of a high risk pa rin mga 70 percent and more (When we say alert level 4, the utilization rate of their hospitals is at high risk, still about 70 percent and more)," she said on Saturday, Oct. 2.
With this, Vergeire urged the public to still follow the minimum public health standards.
"Kaya nga ang bilin natin sa ating mga kababayan, we cannot be complacent at this point. Ipagpatuloy natin ang ginagawa natin para ma decongest ang hospital (That is why we are reminding our countrymen, we cannot be complacent at this point. We should continue what we are doing to decongest the hospitals)," she said.
The DOH spokesperson said that they are currently analyzing if the trend of COVID-19 cases is indeed decreasing.
"Hindi pa namin makumpirma talaga kung itong pagbaba ng kaso ay artificial o talagang bumababa na ang kaso (We haven't really confirmed yet whether this decrease in cases is artificial or whether the case is actually declining)," she said.
"Kinukumpleto pa ho natin ang datos ukol sa factors that may have affected itong pag decrease ng laboratory outputs in the past days (We are still completing the data on the factors that may have affected the decrease in laboratory outputs in the past days)," she added.