While COVID-19 data continues to improve in Metro Manila, the Department of Health (DOH) monitors 10 regions due to the increase in their average daily attack rate (ADAR).
These include Mimaropa, Bicol Region, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, Caraga, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
ADAR is the number of people who get sick per 100,000 population. A region’s ADAR is considered “high risk” if it exceeds 7.
Although the ADAR of the aforementioned regions is less than 7, it is noticeably higher in the past 2 weeks compared to the past 3 to 4 weeks.
While ADAR is still above 7 in the National Capital Region, Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, and Calabarzon, it has dropped significantly compared to April, the DOH Epidemiology Bureau said.
According to Dr. Alethea de Guzman, officer-in-charge of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, the reason why there is a resurgence of cases in other regions did not change.
“Ang main drivers of transmission are really compliance to minimum public health standards and ikalawa, ‘yong nababanggit natin ngayon ‘yung kailangan mapaigsi ang detection to isolation,” said De Guzman.
10 regions monitored due to increase in COVID-19 cases
President Rodrigo Duterte also warned that he will enforce a strict lockdown if the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise again due to non-compliance with health protocols.
According to Duterte, the implementation of localized lockdown should also be speedy to speed up preventing the spread of the disease in the communities.
For De Guzman, local governments should not only rely on strict community quarantine status.
“I think ang isang direksyon natin ay to not be dependent on heightened community quarantines measure but focus on enhancing our measures,” De Guzman said.
As of Tuesday, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country reached 1,154,388 after an additional 4,487 cases. Of that number, 52,291 are active cases or have not yet recovered from the disease.
Meanwhile, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. reported to President Rodrigo Duterte that over three million Filipinos had been vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Sa ngayon maganda pa rin po ang mga balita natin dahil ang ating pagbabakuna napakataas na po, nasa 3 million,” Galvez said in a taped public briefing aired Tuesday morning.
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