The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Monday, July 25, a total of 19,536 new Covid-19 cases recorded in the past week.
In DOH's weekly case bulletin, it stated that daily average cases climbed to 2,791 or 33 percent higher than cases from July 11 to July 17. Of this, 56 were tagged under severe and critical cases or 0.29 percent of the new cases.
Currently, there are 666 severe and critical admissions which is 8.7 percent of the total Covid-19 admissions. On the other hand, 21.7 percent or 578 out of 2,664 of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds are being utilized.
Meanwhile, 26 percent of non-ICU beds or 5,804 out of 22,331 non-ICU beds are being utilized. DOH has also recorded 42 deaths during the past week but none occurred between July 11 to 24.
Despite the increase in Covid-19 cases, DOH said that total and ICU bed utilization rates for COVID-19, at both the national and regional levels, remain to be at low risk.
The agency said that it has observed a slow and smaller upward trend of COVID-19 admission over the past week. Most of these admissions were asymptomatic and mild, numbering 1,471 or 59 percent of the 2,487 admissions. DOH noted that week by week, a larger seven-day moving average is being recorded. This is correlated with the observed increases in weekly positivity rates now at 14 percent nationally. The case increases were also observed across all age groups.
It mentioned that according to latest projections, the case increases may translate to a spike in total and ICU admissions in October, if compliance with minimum public health standard (MPHS) continues to decline and booster rates remain low.
But DOH ensured that all hospitals and health facilities are able to provide appropriate critical care capacity that is accessible to all, especially to vulnerable individuals, to be able to maintain a decreased impact on the country’s health care system.
“With a continuous rise in COVID-19 cases, the DOH reminds the general public to remain vigilant and adhere to our minimum public health standards such as wearing the best-fitted masks, social distancing, and immediate isolation at the onset of symptoms," DOH Officer-in-Charge Secretary Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire said.
"We also encourage the eligible population to get vaccinated and boosted with our COVID-19 vaccines to continue building a strong wall of immunity against the virus. While we now focus more on our admissions, we should still give importance to contributing factors that we can control,” she added.