The government continues to implement all precautionary measures to prevent any Covid-19 surge in the future.
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año emphasized this on Black Saturday, April 16, as he stressed that it is the "personal responsibility" of the public to adhere to all health protocols amid the pandemic to avert another surge.
“We continue to remind all citizens that preventing Covid is a personal responsibility, hence, the need to follow the health protocols and remind/report any violation to the nearest authorities,’’ Año told the Manila Bulletin.
Año’s statement came at the heels of reports that the Philippines may face another Covid-19 surge by mid-May with the National Capital Region (NCR) possibly recording as many as almost half a million active cases if the minimum public health standards (MPHS) are ignored, the Department of Health (DOH) warned.
In a statement, the DOH said that a 50 percent decrease in the compliance of the minimum public health standards (MPHS) in Metro Manila may result in 25,000 to 60,000 new Covid-19 cases per day next month.
The DOH explained that the findings was based on the Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered with Vaccination and Reinfection (SVEIR) model used by the sub-Technical Working Group on Data Analytics (sTWG DA) and the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-temporal Epidemiological Modeler for Early Detection of Diseases (FASSSTER) Team.
“This may bring the number of NCR active cases to almost half a million by mid-May, more than three times higher than the active cases during the Omicron wave’s peak,” the DOH said.
The DOH noted that a 20 percent decrease in MPHS compliance nationwide may lead to around 34,788 active Covid-19 cases by mid-May with over 564 of these cases could be classified as severe and 267 as critical.
Analysts reportedly expressed worry since the country may only have had a low number of Covid-19 cases from March to April but the Filipinos have been less compliant with the MPHS during the same period.
According to a report from GMA News, there is a notable decrease in MPHS compliance rate, particularly that of -7 percent nationwide and -12 percent in the National Capital Region.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire stressed that the public could still prevent a possible Covid-19 surge by strictly observing health protocols and getting the primary vaccine series and booster shots.
“Numbers do not lie. The good news is, at this point, these are all still projections. We can still avert these estimates in favor of better scenarios. We can all do our part to help stop transmission and mutation of the virus if we are to keep wearing our best fitted masks, isolating when sick, doubling protection through vaccines and up to date boosters, and ensuring good airflow,” Vergeire maintained.
With a more relaxed Covid-19 health restrictions, Año said “we are implementing the following: continuous vaccination and boostering in all areas particularly on regions with still low vaccination rate; strict enforcement of minimum public health standards in workplaces, malls, business establishments and campaign areas; LGUs implementation of PDITR (prevent, detect, isolation, treat, re-integration) strategy and immediate imposition of granular lockdowns as the case maybe; and border control protocols.’’
The DILG chief also admitted that ‘everything is possible’ including another Covid-19 surge in the country.