Why did the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) retain the country’s alert level 2 status despite the "concerning" rise daily coronavirus disease (COVID-19)?
According to Cabinet Secretary and IATF Spokesperson Karlo Nograles, the figures on COVID-19 do not require a more stringent risk classification--at least not yet.
"Hindi pa tumama sa parameters ng alert level 3 ang anumang (The parameters for alert level 3 hasn't been reached in any) province and highly-urbanized city and independent component city so far. So based doon po sa parameters po namin noong tinignan po namin yung numbers, wala pa namang tumama doon (So when we checked the numbers against our parameters, they haven't been breached), not yet," Nograles said in a virtual press conference Friday, Dec.31.
"But again, nothing will prevent the IATF from imposing an alert level 3 kapag kinakailangan (if needed)," stressed the Palace official, who also serves as acting presidential spokesperson.
Nograles announced on Thursday, Dec. 30 that for the period of Jan. 1 to 15, the entire Philippines will keep its current risk classification of alert level 2 under the Alert Level System (ALS) for COVID-19 response.
A day earlier, the same official said he was "concerned and worried" about the steady rise in new daily cases of the deadly disease.
"If we see na kailangan i-elevate to alert level 3 ang isang province, or ilang provinces (that we need to elevate to alert level 3 the situation of a province or several provinces)...we will do it kahit hindi pa siya nagja-Jan. 15 (even if it's not yet Jan. 15). Kasama yan sa protocols ng IATF po (That is part of the IATF protocols)," Nograles explained Friday.
Alert level 2 is the second most lenient classification under the ALS. Most regions of the Philippines have been under alert level 2 for the majority of the fourth quarter of 2021.
On Thursday, the Philippines logged in 1,623 new cases of COVID-19. This was the first time that over 1,000 new infections were recorded in over a month.
From only 0.8 last Dec. 20, the country’s positivity rate has jumped to 6.6 percent on Dec. 30. The same period also saw an increase of 2,180 in the number of active cases, which as Thursday stood at 11,772.
It was also earlier this month when the Philippines recorded its first cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
"Nakikipag-ugnayan po kami sa mga LGUs na nakikita po namin na may pagtaas ng mga bilang ng kanilang COVID cases (We're coordinating with the LGUs that have shown an increase in their number of COVID cases)," Nograles said.