Averaging only more than 300 cases per day in the previous week, the country's average daily reported cases of COVID-19 has soared to more than 3,000 this week, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday night, Jan. 4.
Average daily reported cases were only at 349 from Dec. 22 to 28 according to the data presented by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III during the President's pre-recorded public message.
It swelled to 3,313 from Dec. 29 to Jan. 4 or by 849 percent, DOH's data showed. Duque said that this even higher than the average cases reported between Nov. 15 to 21 which was at 3,024.
Duque mentioned that majority of this cases are from the National Capital Region (NCR). He said that NCR is at critical risk case classification with a high-risk two-week growth rate at 1475 percent and an average daily attack rate of more than seven per 100,000 population.
The country remains under high-risk case classification with a 849 percent increase in the seven-day moving average of reported daily cases, 448 percent two-week growth rate, 1.66 average daily attack rate and 14.1 percent positivity rate.
Region 4-A is also under high-risk case classification with a two week growth rate at 557 percent while Region 3 is under moderate-risk case classification with a two-week growth rate at 339 percent. The rest of the regions are under minimal to low risk case classification.
Despite the surge of cases, Duque said that COVID-19 deaths continue to decline which according to him, proves that the COVID-19 vaccination is effective. To date, 69 percent have received their first dose while 57 percent have been fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, the national bed utilization rate is at 24 percent while Intensive Care Unit (ICU) utilization is at 26 percent.