Philippines now at minimal risk for COVID-19 — Duque

MANILA, Philippines — The entire Philippines is now at minimal risk as COVID-19 case rates continue to drop because of vaccination and natural immunity, the health department said.

During a meeting of the government's pandemic task force last Monday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the country improved in all COVID-19 metrics, with the national daily average cases dropping by 31 percent from 1,306 from Feb. 22 to 28 to 899 from March 1 to 7.

The Philippines' average daily attack rate (ADAR) from February 22 to March 7 was at 1.00, down from 2.45 three to four weeks ago. ADAR refers to the number of new COVID-19 infections per 100,000 population.

The country’s two week growth rate, meanwhile, is at negative 59, according to the data presented by Duque. Only about 26% of intensive care unit (ICU) beds and 18% of non-ICU beds are in use. Out of the 6,572 total admissions at the national level, only 16.1% are severe and critical cases, the health chief said.

"If we look at the average daily attack rate or ADAR and the two-week growth rate, that is minimal. And the rest of the country, all the regions are (classified as) minimal (risk) already," Duque said.

"It is the same for our health systems capacity, low risk, minimal to low risk," he added.

Duque attributed the decreasing number of infections to the vaccination efforts and the natural immunity acquired by Filipinos. The health chief described the COVID-19 vaccination as a "game changer" and lauded the sectors who are helping the government reach its target population.

With regard to natural immunity, Duque explained that the Philippines has already experienced five COVID-19 case surges, including the one driven by the Omicron variant.

"But luckily, most of the infections are mild, others are asymptomatic, and both, in fact, account for about 92 to 94% of all our cases," he said.

Duque also cited the Filipinos "very good compliance" with minimum public health standards.

"They (Filipinos) are following (the protocols), unlike the others, especially those with high vaccination rates, they just threw caution to the wind. And so I think that is one distinct difference that we have manifested compared to other countries in Southeast Asia," he added.

Duque reported that the number of Philippines' daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people is at 8.82 lower than Singapore's 3,237.55, Vietnam's 1,366.39, Malaysia's 845.10, Thailand's 326.59 and Indonesia's 121.96.

The improving COVID-19 situation has prompted the government to place Metro Manila and 38 other areas under the most lenient Alert Level 1 from March 1 to 15. The government's pandemic task force is scheduled to meet on Thursday to talk about the updated alert status of areas.