Duque says areas need to first jab 80% of at-risk population
HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday night said the alert level of a city, province or region can only be downgraded to the least strict classification if 80 percent of its vulnerable population, such as senior citizens and persons with comorbidities, are already fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Duque, during the Talk to the People address of President Duterte, said presidential adviser for COVID-19 response Vince Dizon recommended the new parameter.
“Kinakailangan 80 porsiyento ng atin pong A2 and A3, iyung mga vulnerable groups – ito po ‘yung mga senior citizens and individuals with comorbidities – ay kanila na pong naabot. At kung hindi po sila makarating diyan sa panukatan na iyan ay hindi po natin sila puwedeng ibaba to Alert Level 1 (Areas need to reach an 80 percent vaccination rate of their A2 and A3 vulnerable groups — or the senior citizens and individuals with comorbidities. If they fail to reach that, we cannot lower them to Alert Level 1),” Duque said.
Cabinet Secretary and acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles, on Tuesday said the new prerequisite is on top of the required full vaccination of 70 percent of the target population in an area where the alert level would be imposed.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., also on Monday night, said the government is focusing its efforts on finding and vaccinating an estimated three million unvaccinated senior citizens and people with comorbidities nationwide.
As of February 9, 6.25 million senior citizens and 9 million persons with comorbidities have already received their two doses of vaccinations.
Alert Level 3 is currently in effect in Davao de Oro, Davao Occidental, Guimaras, Iloilo City, Iloilo province, South Cotabato, and Zamboanga City, while Metro Manila and the rest of the country are under Alert Level 2 until February 28.
Nograles said the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) will start discussions this week on the alert levels in the different parts of the country for the March 1 to 15 period coverage. The announcement, he said, will be made close to March 1.
Duque and Health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire separately said the country continues to be in the low-risk classification, noting the steady decline in COVID cases and other indicators in most areas nationwide.
Duque said only the Cordillera Administrative Region remains at moderate risk.
Duque said the country’s seven-day average positivity rate was at 8.4 percent as of February 20, while the total bed utilization was at 23.16 percent and intensive care unit (ICU) bed use at 30.4 percent.
He said healthcare utilization rate in all regions, except Davao region (Region 11), are also classified as low risk.
“Everything is going down, which proves that we are over the Omicron hump,” he said.
Vegeire said all regions are now recording below 1,000 active COVID cases daily and have low average daily attack rates, except for CAR and Davao Region.
She also said that only 12 to 15 percent of current hospital admissions are severe or critical COVID cases which she attributed to the high vaccination rate.
“The Department of Health is once again encouraging our loved ones and friends to be vaccinated as soon as possible for the added protection against the virus,” she said.
METRO MANILA
The OCTA Research yesterday backed proposals to shift the National Capital Region (NCR) to Alert Level 1 by next month.
In a televised public briefing, OCTA fellow Guido David said: “We will support the decision of the government, as they will be the ones to decide if we will ease to Alert Level 1. To us, from the perspective of numbers, we believe that by March 1, we can already shift to Alert Level 1.”
OCTA data shows that the positivity rate in the NCR has dropped below 5 percent, which is the acceptable rate set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The positivity rate in the NCR decreased to 4.9 percent, or less than the WHO recommended level of 5 percent, for the first time since December 26, or prior to the Omicron wave,” said David.
This is lower than the 6 percent positivity rate recorded a week ago.
The average daily attack rate (ADAR) in NCR also improved to 2.85 from 3.45 a week earlier.
The healthcare utilization rate likewise decreased to 25 percent from 26 percent the previous week.
On the other hand, the OCTA said Metro Manila’s case growth rate slowed down to negative 28 percent from negative 47 percent last week, while its reproduction rate slightly went up to 0.21 from 0.20 the previous week.
Asked if they don’t see the numerous campaign activities as being super spreader events, David said it will depend on those attending the events.
“We actually don’t see a huge threat of a resurgence in cases since we just came from the Omicron surge. Cases are still going down,” he said.
“However, a spike remains possible if the people are not careful. Those attending campaign rallies must continue following the safety protocols,” added David.
The Department of Interior and Local Government said mayors of local government units currently under Alert Levels 3 and 2 are ready for the lowest quarantine status of Alert Level 1.
DILG undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya, however, said the government will be cautious before declaring the rest of the country under Alert Level 1.
“We have to thoroughly study that because we in the DILG are concerned due to the campaign period. It’s hard to implement minimum public health standards during the campaign period,” said Malaya during the Laging Handa press briefing.
The campaign period for national candidates started earlier this month, while local candidates are due to start their own campaigns on March 25.
“When the local campaign period starts, it will be more difficult for the department, the Philippine National Police and of course Comelec to enforce the minimum public standards. So, we should study carefully if we are ready for Alert Level 1,” said Malaya.
“But if you are going to ask the mayors, they said during our consultations with them, that they are ready for Alert Level 1,” he added.
Data from the PNP national headquarter in Camp Crame yesterday showed 235 areas are under granular lockdown as of Monday, from 226 last Saturday.
The PNP said 127 of the areas on lockdown are in CAR while 73 are in the Ilocos region, 28 in the NCR and seven in Cagayan Valley.
The PNP said 267 families or 343 individuals in 110 barangays within 14 cities and municipalities are affected by the lockdowns, which are manned by 134 policemen and 322 force multipliers or personnel from barangays and city and municipal governments.
Meanwhile, the PNP said police officers have accosted a total of 561,846 individuals for quarantine violation from February 1 to 21.
It said 488,203 were accosted for violation of minimum public health standards (MPHS), 67,006 for curfew violation and 6,637 were non-authorized persons outside of their residences or non-APORs.
The PNP said 94,464 of the violators were accosted in Metro Manila – 94,402 for MPHS violation and 62 for curfew violation.
The PNP said 476,883 of the total number of violators were merely warned, 50,868 were fined, and 34,095 were brought to the police stations for filing of charges. — With Gerard Naval and Victor Reyes
