New Covid-19 cases in the country are now lower than the numbers before the Omicron surge occurred, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday, May 2.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during the DOH press briefing that daily cases are currently averaging at 196. This is lower than the seven-day moving average recorded between Dec. 18 to 24 last year which was 254.
During the past week, Vergeire said the country recorded a total of 1,373 cases from April 26 to May 2. Among the active cases, she said that 97.29 percent are mild while no new severe or critical case was reported.
The DOH also recorded 215 more Covid-19 deaths.
Meanwhile, confirmed Covid-19 cases, according to Vergeire, continue to plateau in all island groups in the country. The national positivity rate is on a slow decline at 1.2 from 1.3 percent last week. The country remains under minimal risk case classification although the DOH has noted an increase in cases in some regions.
According to Vergeire, Regions 4B, 5 and 8 have experienced a positive growth rate in the recent two weeks while a positive one week growth rate was recorded in CAR, Region 2, and Region 7. She explained that an increase of two to 30 cases does not translate to an increased average daily attack rate (ADAR).
Omicron BA.2.12
The Omicron BA.2.12 subvariant has now entered the country yet Vergeire shared that despite the 23 to 27 percent growth rate compared to BA.2, according to the New York State Dept. of Health, it has not been observed to cause a more severe disease.
This subvariant, is still not considered as a variant of concern or variant of interest and remains to be classified as Omicron until significant differences in transmission and disease characteristics are determined
75% Covid-19 vaccination
The government has fully-vaccinated 75 percent or 67.9 million Filipinos against Covid-19 as of May 1 while 6.7 million of the elderly population and 8.9 million of the immunocompromised population are already protected.
In the pediatric vaccination, 2 million children and 9.2 million adolescents are already vaccinated.
On the other hand, 13 million individuals have received their booster doses. The DOH is encouraging the remaining 38.7 million to get their booster shots.