The Department of Health (DOH) said that there are no signs yet that the number of new Covid-19 cases will decrease soon.
“Hanggang sa ngayon sinasabi natin patuloy ang pagtaas ng kaso (We are seeing that the cases will continue to rise). We cannot say that this week will be the peak of this apparent surge na sinasabi. Kasi base sa ating projections, patuloy na tataas pa ang kaso (Because based on our projections, the cases will continue to increase),” said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire in a press briefing on Wednesday, July 20.
“Hindi siya magpe-peak at biglang bababa....Hindi pa po natin nakikita iyan base sa ating mga datos ngayon at mga projections na ating sinasabi (It won't peak yet and will decrease suddenly .... We haven't seen that yet based on our current data and the projections),” she added.
“Actually in our projections, we are seeing that by the end of July tataas pa ang mga kaso natin (cases will continue to increase),” she furthered.
Vergeire said that the number of Covid-19 cases nationwide is at over 2,000 per day.
"Most areas show continuous increase in cases with NCR showing the steepest increase, now almost at 900 cases per day," she said.
"Despite continued case increases in most regions, national and all regions remain at low risk case classification," she added.
The factors contributing to the increase in cases are the presence of the more transmissible subvariants of Omicron, decrease in minimum public health standards compliance, and increased mobility of the people.
End game?
Meanwhile, the DOH disagreed with the idea that the Covid-19 is "nearing" its end game.
"Kung iyan po ang nakikita ng ibang eksperto sa ating bansa, hopefully. Kami po ay natutuwa sa mga ganyang projections (If that's what other experts in our country are seeing, hopefully. We welcome such projections)," said Vergeire.
"But dito sa ating mga datos, projections, we do not see na meron tayong plateauing o pagbagal sa ngayon sa pagtaas ng kaso (in our data, projections, we don’t see that the cases is currently plateauing or the trend is already slowing down)," she added.
The Octa Research group on Wednesday said that cases are already declining in Metro Manila and that Covid-19 "maybe" is "nearing its endgame in NCR."
Vergeire reminded the public that the Covid-19 virus remains a threat at this point in time.
"Nandito na tayo sa punto na marunong na tayong to live with the virus...so sana magsama-sama tayong magtulungan (We are already at this point where we know how to live with the virus ... so, we should continue to work together)," she said.
"The end goal will be that we can be able prevent further severe and critical cases and prevent deaths...The end goal will be for us to preserve our healthcare system," she added.