The country's COVID-19 referral center is receiving fewer calls from those seeking medical assistance as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continues to decline.

“Sa nakaraang linggo po no, ang mga request na nari-receive po namin ay pumapatak ng lagpas 200 calls or 200 request per day iyong nari-receive namin dito sa National OHCC (Last week, the requests we received were more than 200 calls or we are receiving 200 requests per day here at the National OHCC),” said OHCC Medical Officer Dr. Marylaine Padlan on Friday, Dec. 3.

“Iyong mga tawag po natin ngayon ay halo na, hindi lang COVID related. Siyempre po dahil bumaba pa rin iyong cases natin ng COVID, bumababa na rin iyong ating COVID-related cases especially those requiring isolation (The calls we are receiving are mixed, not just COVID related. Of course, because our COVID cases are still declining, our COVID-related cases are also decreasing especially those requiring isolation),” she added.

Amid the growing concern on the Omicron variant, Padlan said OHCC is prepared to receive more calls in case infections start to increase anew.

“Dahil ni-recognize din naman namin na puwedeng maging threat sa atin iyong ating bagong variant na Omicron variant. Continuous pa rin po iyong pag-train namin sa mga personnel namin para mas maging efficient po iyong referrals namin (We recognize that the new Omicron variant could be a threat to us. We are still continuously training our personnel to make our referrals more efficient),” said Padlan.

“Then continuous iyong pag-check, pag-strengthen, pag-improved ng system namin and then improved din po iyong mga networks namin po with other hospital at sa mga ating regions din po (Then, we continuously check, strengthen,and improve our system and then also improve our networks with other hospitals and in our regions as well),” she added.

To note, the Philippines has been logging fewer than 1,000 COVID-19 cases for 10 straight days already.