The country's new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases dropped below 1,000 on Monday, Feb. 28.
Ted ALJIBE / AFP
In its latest case bulletin, the Department of Health (DOH) said that it recorded 951 new COVID-19 cases. The country last recorded fresh cases below 1,000 on Dec. 29, 2021 just when COVID-19 cases were beginning to spike.
Active cases stood at 52,179 or 1.4 percent of the total number of cases. This update brings the total number of cases to 3,661,997 since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the active cases, 42,157 are mild; 2,779 are moderate; 1,417 are severe; 528 are asymptomatic; while 298 are in critical condition.
DOH said that of the 951 reported cases, 895 or 94 percent occurred within the recent 14 days from Feb. 15 to Feb. 28, 2022. The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were Metro Manila with 231 or 26 percent, Region 4-A with 136 or 15 percent and Region 6 with 93 or 10 percent.
The agency also reported 1m717 new recoveries, bringing the total to 3,553,367 or 97 percent of the total number of cases while 50 more have died from COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 56,451 or 1.54 percent of the total number of cases.
DOH said that all labs were operational on Feb. 26. However, five labs were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS).
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that sustaining the Alert Level 1 status of different areas lies in the public's hands. Metro Manila as well as 38 other areas, will be placed under Alert Level 1 from March 1 to 15.
"Ayaw na po nating bumalik sa ating mga lockdowns, sa ating mga restrictions (We don't want to go back to lockdowns, and to restrictions), so self-regulation is the key," Vergeire said.
"In order for us to be able to sustain and continue on having this kind of lower alert level, lahat po tayo dapat tulong-tulong (we should all help each other)," she added.
Vergeire mentioned that if one sees that there is mass gathering, and social distancing is ignored as well as non-observance of minimum public health standards, he or she should self-regulate.