The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has eased its “travel health notice” for the Philippines as the country continues to exhibit a decreasing number of Covid-19 cases, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Friday, April 1.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the Philippines is among the 14 countries "classified under Level 2 Covid-19 moderate" of the US CDC.
Based on its website, the US CDC is using travel health notices in order "to alert travelers and other audiences to health threats around the world and advise on how to protect themselves." This system has four categories or levels for Covid-19.
"The US CDC has lowered the risk level for travel to the Philippines, classifying it under Covid-19 Moderate," said Vergeire during the Malacanang press briefing.
"Countries under Level 2 have recorded 50 to 99 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people over the past 28 days," said Vergeire.
Vaccination and adherence to minimum health standards play an important role in bringing down the cases, said Vergeire.
"This can be attributed to the public's continuous adherence to the minimum health and safety protocols as well as high vaccination rates. We can make this better by getting our boosters," said Vergeire.
The DOH official said there were around 2,500 new Covid-19 cases "recorded from the past week." She added that Covid-19 cases in the Philippines are "slowly decreasing" with an average of 364 cases per day.
Meanwhile, the government has already fully vaccinated 65.9 million individuals, said Vergeire.
"The Department will continuously make vaccines easily available and accessible so every Filipino can be better protected against the virus," she said.