PH sees 304 additional Covid-19 cases
Published Apr 29, 2023 11:21 am
The Philippines registered 304 additional cases of Covid-19, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Saturday, April 29.
The number of active cases nationwide stood at 5,070, the DOH said.
Among the regions with the largest number of new infections in the last 14 days were the National Capital Region with 2,533, Calabarzon with 1,124, Davao Region with 420, Western Visayas with 367, and Central Luzon with 358.
The country's overall tally of confirmed cases already reached 4,092,158, of which 4,020,644 were recoveries and 66,444 were deaths.
Meanwhile, there is no cause for alarm over the recent uptick in cases, said infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante of the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila.
“I can totally say that we’re still in a stable condition even with this increase on the cases and this is driven by the fact that hindi pa napupuno at wala tayong signals na mapupuno ang mga hospital (the hospitals are not yet full and we have no signals that the capacities of hospitals will be full),” said Solante during a public briefing on Friday, April 28.
“If you look at the data na maski tumataas nang bahagya ang mga kaso, hindi rin tumataas ang mga namamatay, hindi tumataas ang nagsi-severe Covid at hindi rin tumaas iyong napupunta sa hospital (even though the cases are slightly increasing, the number of deaths, severe Covid, and the hospital admissions are not rising),” he added.
Face mask use
Solante reminded the public to always assess their risk and that the use of face masks is still necessary. He also believes that the use of face masks should remain voluntary. “Well, ang tingin ko dito (my take on this) and this is also the observation in other countries – that as long as there are these variants of interest, we will continue to encourage people to wear their face mask. And when we say encourage people, particularly the vulnerable population,” he said. “Why? Because encouraging them to wear the face mask instead of mandatory, we will give that particular decision na tuturuan natin ang mga tao (to teach people) on how to protect ourselves,” he added.
Face mask use
Solante reminded the public to always assess their risk and that the use of face masks is still necessary. He also believes that the use of face masks should remain voluntary. “Well, ang tingin ko dito (my take on this) and this is also the observation in other countries – that as long as there are these variants of interest, we will continue to encourage people to wear their face mask. And when we say encourage people, particularly the vulnerable population,” he said. “Why? Because encouraging them to wear the face mask instead of mandatory, we will give that particular decision na tuturuan natin ang mga tao (to teach people) on how to protect ourselves,” he added.