Nearly two years after the pandemic was officially declared, the Department of Health (DOH) is set to change its reporting of the Covid-19 situation starting Monday, March 7—with the case bulletin to be released weekly instead of the usual daily update.

This shift in case reporting was amid the continuous decline in Covid-19 cases and some areas now under the Alert Level 1 status.

In a recent press briefing, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the weekly bulletin will contain the number of severe and critical cases and the healthcare utilization, particularly the occupancy in the intensive care units (ICUs). This will be released every Monday.

“So starting March 7... we will be issuing a revised case bulletin kung saan mas magpu-focus na po tayo sa (where we will focus more on) severe and critical cases and the utilization in our ICUs,” she said.

The daily case bulletin, which is being released every 4 p.m., shows information such as the number of new Covid-19 cases, new deaths and recoveries; total number of confirmed cases, recoveries, and fatalities; the number of active cases or patients who are still sick as well as their health status; positivity rate; and the hospital bed utilization both nationwide and in Metro Manila.

The daily case bulletin is posted in the different social media accounts of the DOH such as Facebook and on its community Viber group.

For the meantime, Vergeire said that the DOH Covid-19 tracker, which can be accessed on its official website, will still be updated regularly. However, it would eventually be updated on a weekly basis to align with the release of the case bulletin.

“Regarding the public tracker naman po, we still retain the public tracker. But eventually, ipi-phase out din po natin na magiging once a week na rin po kasabay (it will also be updated once a week) or aligned with our case bulletin,” she said.

“But for next week, starting March 7, we have once a week case bulletin and the public tracker still will be released every day,” she added.

The DOH spokesperson said that this new way of Covid-19 reporting will be “permanent” even if the number of infections will increase. Vergeire, meanwhile, assured that the DOH will inform the public if this scenario happens.

“So unang-una, balikan natin iyong objective bakit po ba natin pinapalitan ng ganito ang ating case bulletin. Gusto ho nating tanggalin iyon pong mindset ng ating mga kababayan na numero po ang tinitingnan natin (So first of all, let's go back to our objective--- why are we changing the case bulletin. We want to remove that mindset of our citizens that we are looking at the numbers). Because we have seen during this Omicron situation that the situation or the characteristic of the virus has become milder compared to the Delta variant,” said Vergeire.

“Kung saka-sakali pong dadating tayo sa punto (If that happens) in this situation that we have while in transition— dumating po na tumataas uli ang mga numero po ng ating kaso (if the number of our cases increase again), we will be providing information to the public. Pero ito pong ating paglalathala ng atin pong severe, critical at saka (But this reporting of our severe, critical and) healthcare utilization through ICU, ito po iyong atin pong magiging permanente na (this will be permanent),” she added.

“So as to the case numbers kung mga mild po iyan (if it is mild), we treat it like it’s part of our lives. We live with the virus. Iyong severe at critical ang pagtuunan po natin ng pansin (we will focus on severe and critical cases),” she furthered.