DOH: Pandemic not over, don’t be complacent

MANILA, Philippines — While the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency, the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday reminded the public not to be complacent as the pandemic is not yet over.

At a press briefing, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire maintained that the pandemic is still not over.

“The Public Health Emergency of International Concern lifted by the WHO is not equated to the pandemic. So even though the WHO has already lifted the Public Health Emergency of International Concern status, they did not say that the pandemic is over,” Vergeire said.

“We can’t be complacent at this point,” she added.

The WHO earlier stressed that while lifting it is a sign of progress, COVID-19 is here to stay even if it no longer represents an emergency.

Vergerie likewise reminded the public to remain vigilant and continue using multiple layers of protection – such as wearing of masks, isolating when sick, getting vaccinated and boosted – as the country is now seeing a rise in COVID cases.

From May 2 to 8, the average daily cases was 1,400 and this is 87 percent higher than the 747 cases documented daily from April 25 to May 1. Ninety six percent of the 1,400 cases are mild, asymptomatic or moderate while the remaining four percent are severe and critical.

“When we look at our hospitals, we remain to be at ‘low-risk case utilization.’ Our hospital bed wards for COVID-19 is at 21 percent across the country,” she pointed out.

On the other hand, the ICU utilization rate is at 16 percent nationwide.

“Both of these are classified as low-risk utilization for our hospitals, meaning we are able to manage our cases,” she said.

Vergeire said the DOH met with the Inter-Agency Task Force Monday night to discuss possible changes in the country’s guidelines or protocols for the pandemic. She, however, refused to divulge what were discussed during the meeting.

“We are formulating it and whatever our recommendations are will be submitted to the President. So, our timeline would be, we will be submitting to the president by Monday of next week,” she added.

Arcturus

Asked for updates on the detection of the first case of Arcturus or XBB.1.1.12 subvariant in the country in April, Vergeire said there is no genome sequencing conducted yet.

“Only one case of Arcturus variant has been detected. But as I’ve said previously, there are many factors why cases are increasing,” she said, citing the crowded events in the country recently, particularly the Holy Week gatherings.

She also said there were “many interactions,” especially during the long weekends when families gathered.

Another big factor is the opening of various sectors, leading to people’s increased mobility.

“Variants will come in and the virus is continuously mutating because that is their life cycle so we can expect cases to go up and down,” she added.

The official maintained what is important is to prevent people from getting sick and to keep the health system’s capacity “manageable.”