‘We believe the government has done enough to issue reminders and guidelines, and it is up to the people to follow.’
PEOPLE are generally happy and businessmen are bullish on the prospect that Metro Manila may soon downgrade its COVID alert level from Level 2 to Level 1. The National Capital Region remains under moderate risk but is very close to moving down to low risk. At this rate of decrease, if the trends continue, the NCR could have less than 200 new cases per day by the end of February. This is according to OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David.
David referred to the data released by the Department of Health last Saturday, showing that of the 3,792 new COVID-19 cases tallied on February 12, just 562 were from Metro Manila. This latest increase is generally within OCTA’s projections in late January, which see the National Capital Region hitting pre-Omicron surge numbers by the end of the month.
Another source who said the situation is encouraging is Dr. Rajendra Yadav, country representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Manila. In a public briefing, he said the decreasing trend of the number of new cases is really very encouraging. He added they have seen a relatively low number of deaths during the recent Omicron surge and also the national health care utilization rate is quite stable.
Many local health experts agree with Yadav that the nation can not consider that “the worst is over, but that’s only for now because we do not know how long this current favorable situation will last.”
If there is anything that could provide a snag that would revert us to the Omicron levels last year, it is the current mass gatherings during election campaign sorties. These take the form of rallies, meetings, motor caravans, prayer rallies, etc.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted that huge crowds in campaign sorties are a “cause of concern” for the DOH. National candidates have been doing all sorts of mass mobilization without regard to Comelec and IATF health protocols, and people are not bothered.
Vergeire reminded in a public forum: “Let us remember, even though our cases are declining, the virus is still here. The variants are still here, not only Omicron, we are still detecting Delta variant cases. We want to remind our fellow citizens who attend gatherings to take care because they can get infected there.”
She also requested “the campaigners, our candidates, let us be a model to show the people to follow safety protocols.” We believe the government has done enough to issue reminders and guidelines, and it is up to the people to follow. Sanctions must now be readied for the recidivists.
