The Department of Health reported on Monday, July 11 a total of 10,271 new Covid-19 cases recorded in the past week.

According to DOH's weekly bulletin, daily average cases increased again at 1,467 or 39 percent higher than cases on June 27 to July 3.

Among the new cases, 27 were tagged under severe and critical or 0.27 percent.

The case bulletin also showed 555 patients with severe and critical Covid-19 infections are admitted, constituting 8.7 percent of total Covid-19 admissions.

DOH also disclosed that 411 out of 2,414 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds or 17 percent are being used. On the other hand, 4,863 out of 21,424 non-ICU beds are being utilized or 22. 7 percent.

DOH's case bulletin also recorded 50 more deaths from Covid-19 although none of it occured from June 17 to July 10.

Weak surge

Infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante, during the Laging Handa public briefing stated that a weak surge in Covid-19 cases is currently being experienced in the country given that the positivity rate and the number of newly-infected individuals based on that positivity rate is starting to increase.

Solante stated that the country can expect an uptick in cases within the next three to four weeks due to the more transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.

On the other hand, i in terms of severity the two subvariants, Solante said that they are more or less the same.

"Pero wala silang kaibahan in terms of the mutation, talagang itong dalawang variants of concern na ito or lineages ng Omicron, mataas ang pagbaba ng mga bisa ng mga bakuna, aside from being able to transmit ‘no from one person to the other (They have no difference in terms of the mutation, these two variants of concern or sublineages of Omicron, significantly decreases the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, aside from being highly transmissible)," he explained.

He added that there is no reason to be complacent in the presence of these kinds of variants because having a reproduction number of at least 18, it's just like measles, it can cause more infection, higher transmissibility, and this will also involve not only those younger population but also the vulnerable population.

Meanwhile, he mentioned that they are studying another new variant the BA2.75, and the implications if ever it will be very highly transmissible.

Solante noted this will really have an impact on the protective efficacy of the vaccines because the more mutations, the lesser the effective the vaccines are. He added that this is reflected in the high number of breakthrough infections or infections even in those who are fully-vaccinated.

"So, we need to monitor this and we also want to monitor how effective this current vaccine or the next generation of vaccine that will be available," he said.