The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) wants to reposition the metrics used by the government in setting policy response to the pandemic, particularly the daily tracker of COVID-19 cases.
Socioeconomic Planning Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon said on Tuesday, Jan. 18, that instead of reporting the daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country, government should focus on the number of severe cases and critical COVID cases.
Edillon explained that tracking the number of infections on a daily basis is no longer attuned to the realities, particular in areas where vaccination rate is very high.
“We should actually be veering away from reporting on the active cases, but really reporting now on the number of the severe and critical,” the NEDA official told reporters in a virtual briefing.
In particular, she cited that while the current count of active COVID-19 cases in the Philippines is at 287,856, only 1,475 cases are considered severe while 305 patients are in critical conditions.
Taking together the severe and critical cases, they only account for 0.62 percent of the total active cases in the country, Edillon noted.
In the National Capital Region—the epicenter of the pandemic—the total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began have reached around one million. Currently, the region’s active cases stand at almost 146,000, she said.
However, Edillon noted that while the number of active cases remain relatively high in Metro Manila, the numbers of severe and critical cases were only at 167 and 82, respectively.
“Taken together, we are seeing 0.2 percent of the severe and critical,” Edillon said.
Vaccination rate in the NCR has already exceeded its target population.
“We said that we should actually be also changing the way we report it, and that is really so that we can be more informed of what we need to do next,” Edillon said.
The government’s focus should be on COVID-19 inoculation, citing the latest data showing that vaccines have really provided protection against critical and severe infections during the Omicron-induced surge this month, she said.
“What we're seeing here is that we now have confirmed cases which is more than 250 percent of our Delta peak before, but our total admission is just 60 percent of what we had during the Delta peak,” Edillon said.
Moreover, she added that the the total severe and critical today is just about 20 percent of the Delta peak recorded in around August to October last year.
“With the very, very high vaccination—take note that this is in NCR, where the vaccination rate is pretty high—we are observing this decoupling between the number of cases and then the number of severe and critical cases,” she said.
“That is the reason why we're putting much emphasis on vaccination,” the NEDA official added.