THERE was no significant rise in new COVID-19 cases in the Philippines recently, the Department of Health (DoH) said on Tuesday.
An average of 133 cases per day had been reported nationwide in the previous week, Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told a news briefing streamed live on Facebook.
“We have not seen anything significant yet,” she said in Filipino, “if there is anything significant during the past weeks, there would be an increase of five or three cases, and this is not significant if we try to compare that to our weekly average number of cases.”
Ms. Vergeire said COVID-19 cases in the capital region Metro Manila remained low.
“For now, we can say that everything is manageable, our hospitals are able to manage our cases,” she said.
However, the Health official said they were closely monitoring Mandaluyong City, which only has three intensive care unit (ICU) beds.
“When there is only one admission (in the city), the percentage increases,” she said.
On Monday, the Health department said the Philippines had posted 913 new coronavirus infections in the previous week with a daily average of 130.
The daily average was 10% higher than the average cases per day from a week earlier, the agency said in a bulletin. There were no severe and critical cases reported.
The DoH said 56 new deaths were “verified” in the past week, six of which occurred from Feb. 20 to Mar. 5.
It said 263 of 1,978 ICU beds had been used as of Mar. 5, while 2,840 of 16,871 non-ICU beds were occupied. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza