DOH: Peak of COVID-19 surge in NCR unlikely to happen soon

The peak in the surge of COVID-19 cases in the National Capital Region is not going to happen soon, the Department of Health said Friday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the peak of cases is expected by the end of January or as late as the second week of February.

“So ito pong mga kaso patuloy pa rin tataas kaya lahat po tayo mag-iingat, lahat tayo magpabakuna na kung eligible na para makatulong tayo kung hindi natin maabot ‘yung projections,” she said at the Palace briefing.

(Cases will continue to increase, so let us all remain careful, let all eligible individuals get vaccinated so we will not reach the projections.)

In his daily prediction of new COVID-19 infections, OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David said cases in NCR may be “peaking or close to peaking” based on limited data.

Although the NCR may be peaking or close to peaking, based on the limited data that we have (and this is why there is still considerable uncertainty in these projections), I expect total cases to increase today, possibly to a range of 35k to 37k.

— Dr. Guido David (@iamguidodavid) January 14, 2022

Vergeire, meanwhile, noted that more areas have been placed under Alert Level 3  from January 16 until January 31 as their cases increased.

“Similar to the trends when NCR started to have this increase in cases ganon din po yung nangyayari sa kanila, meron din po doubling time na mabilis at ‘yun pong pagtaas talaga ay biglaan,” she said.

(Similar to the trends when NCR started to have this increase in cases because that is what will happen to them, there is a doubling time and the increase is really sudden.)

“So we are seeing na mino-monitor po natin maigi yang mga lugar na ‘yan at tama naman po na kailangan po makita natin ‘yung mga areas na meron nang angkin pagtaas ng kaso,” she added.

(So we are strictly monitoring these areas and it’s correct that we need to see the areas that have increasing cases.)

According to the Health undersecretary, the government cannot prevent the spread of cases or confine the surge within NCR.

“As with our situation during the Delta experience, nung tumaas po sa NCR ang mga kaso after 2 to 3 weeks we saw the increase in cases in the other regions of the country,” she said.

Thus, she said the DOH has instructed hospitals in the region on what they need to prepare for a possible surge.

“So yun po yung instruction ngayon ng ating Secretary of Health, Secretary Nograles, at Secretary Galvez na makapag-prepare properly kung saka sakaling talagang tumaas na rin ang mga kaso sa ibang lugar sa bansa,” she said.

(So this is the instruction of our Secretary of Health, Secretary Nograles, and Secretary Galvez to properly prepare in case cases do increase.) —LBG, GMA News