The Department of Health has given Metro Manila and six other regions the green light to drop to COVID-19 Alert Level 1 next month thanks to their high coronavirus vaccination rate, an official said.
This developed as the Philippines on Saturday logged 1,223 additional COVID-19 cases, the eighth day in a row that new recorded infections dropped below 2,000, data from the DOH showed.
Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, the Cordillera Autonomous Region, the Ilocos Region, and Cagayan Valley could be placed under the lowest quarantine level.
Cabotaje said Metro Manila has fully vaccinated over 100 percent of its target residents, noting that a relatively high vaccination rate during the Omicron surge last month was also the reason why its health care capacity was not really stretched.
“Our fully-vaccinated coverage in NCR is at 100 percent… while there were more patients (during the Omicron surge), our health care system (in Metro Manila) was not overloaded,” the official explained.
Malacañang earlier said that areas can shift to Alert Level 1 if they meet the following: Low to minimal risk case classification; total bed utilization rate of less than 50 percent; full vaccination of 70 percent of its target population (denominator is 80 percent of its total population); and full vaccination of 80 percent of its target population in the elderly (denominator is 85 percent of its population).
Restrictions in establishments and public transport will be removed under the lowest quarantine level, which is considered the blueprint for the “new normal.”
Metro Manila mayors earlier urged the COVID-19 task force to de-escalate the region’s alert level due to the further drop in new cases. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has also backed placing Metro Manila under Alert Level 1.
Saturday’s cases were considered the second lowest so far this year, according to ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido, as they raised the country’s cumulative total to 3,660,020, of which 53,934 were active.
The active case count is the lowest since January 5, Guido added. The positivity rate was at 5.3 percent, based on samples received from 26,631 individuals on Thursday, the 4 p.m. bulletin showed.
Guido said the positivity rate was the lowest since December 27.
Deaths increased to 56,351 after the DOH confirmed 128 more fatalities, which included 113 cases initially classified as recoveries, the DOH said.
Recoveries rose by 2,400 to 3,549,735. The total number of recoveries comprise 97 percent of the running total. Four laboratories failed to submit data on time.
