PH Covid cases keep climbing

By Red Mendoza  and Catherine S. Valente

CASES of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the country continued to climb, breaching the 1,700 daily average mark over the past week.

In its Covid situationer issued on Friday, the Department of Health (DoH) said the national daily average jumped by 40 percent during the week of July 8 to 14, to 1,751 cases.

The National Capital Region or Metro Manila still has the steepest increase, with 748 daily cases, while Mindanao's numbers are also inching up.

Despite the rise, the risk classification remains to be low, along with average daily attack rates and health care utilization rates.

Severe and critical admissions are also low — 651 out of the total 7,629 cases in hospitals across the country.

The caseload is still a far cry from the record 39,004 cases on January 15, a surge driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant.

Experts constantly remind that Omicron and its subvariants have high rates of transmission and could skirt immunity from vaccines.

Majority of the Omicron cases, however, are mild, compared to the Delta variant.

The DoH also reported that 71.2 million individuals have been fully vaccinated for Covid-19 as of July 13, while 15.5 million have received booster doses.

NCR remains under Alert Level 2

During a TV interview on Friday, Health department Officer in Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said vaccinations should not be a requirement for children attending in-person classes.

Full face-to-face classes are set to resume in November, and most parents are worried that vaccinated children may mingle with unvaccinated schoolmates.

Vergeire said that instead of mandating vaccinations, it is better to give incentives to parents who convince their children to get jabbed.

She said schoolchildren should not be deprived of education just because they are not vaccinated. "Education is a right, we cannot think of it into a mandate where they would not go to school because of this," Vergeire said.

Metro Manila remains under Alert Level 1

She said the DoH will set up vaccination sites in schools so that kids and their parents may be encouraged to get their shots.

Vergeire also said one of her plans as OIC is to speed up the release of benefits for health workers.

She said most of the issues encountered by hospitals in providing benefits to their staff were "transactional" in nature, such as non-signing of memoranda of agreement and liquidation of funds from some hospitals.

Alert Level 1 stays in Metro Manila, parts of PH

"We are planning to start discussing this with the health workers and looking at the challenges to facilitate the release of the benefits," Vergeire said.

She also said that one of her priorities is to work with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to hasten the approval of certificates of product registration (CPR) for Covid-19 vaccines.

Vergeire said the department will encourage manufacturers to apply for such a certificate to be able to use these vaccines once the state of public health emergency expires in September.

In a related development, Press Secretary Rose Beatrix "Trixie" Cruz-Angeles said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will continue to function under the administration of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

Cruz-Angeles made the assurance as the current quarantine classification was set to lapse on July 15.

During a press briefing Friday, she said she has not been informed when the IATF will meet and submit its recommendations to the President on the new alert levels for the rest of the month.

She said the government is prepared to extend the present levels if necessary.

Aside from Metro Manila, provinces and cities under Alert Level 1 until July 15: Abra, Apayao, Baguio City, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Dagupan City, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Batanes, Cagayan, City of Santiago, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Angeles City, Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Olongapo City, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Lucena City, Rizal, Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro, Puerto Princesa City, Romblon, Albay, Catanduanes, Naga City, and Sorsogon.

Also under Alert Level 1 are Aklan, Bacolod City, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo province, Iloilo City, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City (Opon), Mandaue City, Siquijor, Biliran, Eastern Samar, Ormoc City, Southern Leyte, Tacloban City, Zamboanga City, Northern Mindanao: Bukidnon, Cagayan De Oro City, Camiguin, Iligan City, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Davao City, Davao Oriental, South Cotabato, Butuan City, Surigao Del Sur, Agusan Del Norte, Agusan Del Sur and Cotabato City.

Under Alert Level 1, travel is allowed without regard to age and comorbidities.

Under Alert Level 2 are Benguet, Ifugao, Quezon, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Masbate, Antique, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, City of Isabela, Zamboanga Del Norte, Zamboanga Del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Lanao Del Norte, Davao De Oro, Davao Del Norte, Davao Del Sur, Davao Occidental, Cotabato, General Santos City, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, Dinagat Islands, Surigao Del Norte, Basilan, Lanao Del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.