The Covid-19 cases in the Philippines could hit 18,000 per day by Nov. 15, the Department of Health (DOH) warned on Tuesday, Oct. 18.

Current projections of the DOH indicate that cases may hit 2,400 cases per day to as high as 18,000 by the middle of November.

“We have new projections where it shows that by November, tuloy-tuloy pa rin–may kaso pa rin tayo (we will continue to see cases) and the low part for this would be 2,400 cases in a day,” said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire in a press briefing.

“The high part, kapag tuloy-tuloy na mag decline ang pag practice ng minimum public health standards (if the practice of minimum public health standards continues to decline), we can still see as much as 18,000 cases per day by Nov. 15,” she added.

This projection does not include yet the possible effects of the new variants detected in the country–the Omicron subvariant XBB and the XBC variant, said Vergeire.

Tuesday’s case number

Based on the latest case bulletin, the Philippines has logged 1,196 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the number of active infections to 25,039.

Most of the new cases in the last two weeks were recorded in Metro Manila with 9,601, followed by Calabarzon with 4,944, Central Luzon with 2,666, Davao region with 1,447, and Western Visayas with 1,308.

The DOH said that most areas in the country “show incremental increase.” It noted that Metro Manila “shows downward trend while Mindanao shows signs of plateauing.”

Since 2020, the country has already recorded 3.98 million cases, including 3.89 million people who have recovered, and 63,581 deaths.

“In order for us to be able to further manage this kind of situation at magtuloy tuloy tayo, we need the cooperation of our communities, the population, magpabakuna, sumunod sa (we need the cooperation of our communities and the whole population. Get vaccinated and follow the) minimum public health standards,” said Vergeire.