Government’s
COVID-19 fight improving nationally — health chief
The country’s fight against COVID-19 is improving nationally although there are areas of concern at the local level, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a report on Monday.
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Health Secretary Francisco Duque III gives updates to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte during a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Arcadia Active Lifestyle Center in Matina, Davao City on February 15, 2021. JOEY DALUMPINES/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
“Ang ating mga pangunahing mensahe patungkol po sa ating COVID situationer. Una, sa pangkalahatan po, nakakakita pa rin po tayo ng pagbaba sa dami ng mga naitatalang kaso sa buong bansa ngunit may mga rehiyon tulad ng Region VII at CARAGA na nagpapakita ng patuloy na pagtaas,” Duque said in his report to President Rodrigo Duterte during a meeting in Davao City.
“Walong
lungsod naman sa NCR ang nagpapakita rin ng pagtaas ng mga kaso,” he added.
Regionally,
the healthcare utilization rate is on the safe zone, Duque said, noting,
however, that in the provincial and city levels, some localities remain in
moderate to critical risk level.
Duque
also suggested the implementation of aggressive response strategies to contain
the spread of the new COVID-19 variant in areas of concern.
As
of Monday, there were an additional 1,685 new cases of COVID-19 infections,
bringing the total number of cases to 550,860. Out of those cases, 27, 588 are
currently in the hospitals or in isolation centers, Duque reported.
The
country posted 11, 517 fatalities, which is 2.09 percent of the total confirmed
cases. There are 26,043 active cases.
“Doon
naman sa recoveries, Mr. President, ay mayroon tayong 511,755 who have
recovered --- cases that have recovered and accounts for 93 percent, more or
less,” he told the President.
The
DOH is coordinating with different regions to get true sample representation of
coronavirus cases to effectively track areas with spiking infections
particularly with regard to the new COVID-19 variant, which was already
detected in the country, Duque said.
Among
those conducting genomic sequencing are the Philippine Genome Center of the
University of the Philippines (UP), National Institutes of Health, and Research
Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
So
far, health experts haven’t come up with a conclusive finding, he added. PND
