Philippines now at critical risk for COVID-19 —Duque

The Philippines has been classified as a critical risk for coronavirus disease amid the sudden spike of infections believed to be driven by the Omicron variant, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Monday.

"Ang ating bansa ay kasalukuyang nasa critical risk case classification, na may pagtaas na 690% sa seven-day average of daily reporting cases," said Duque in President Rodrigo Duterte's public address.

Also, Duque said the  Omicron surpassed Delta as the dominant variant in the country.

"Base sa pinakahuling run of whole genome sequencing, 60% na po ng samples na nasequence ay positive na po for Omicron varaint so siya na po nagdo-dominate na variant whereas before it was the Delta," he said.

In his presentation, Duque said 18 samples sequenced on January 3 were positive for Delta while 29 cases of Omicron variant  were detected.

Meanwhile, Duque said even if there is an increase in daily cases, severe and critical cases are comparatively lower than the infections observed during the September 2021 peak.

On January 3 this year, the Department of Health announced the country has been classified as "high risk" for COVID-19 following the sharp increase in cases.  

“Nationally, we are now at high risk case classification from low risk case class in the previous week, showing a positive two-week growth rate at 222% and a moderate risk average daily attack rate at 1.07 cases for every 100,000 individuals,” Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire had said.

On January 10, the Philippines reported 33,169 new COVID-19 cases, raising the country's active infections to 157,526. 

Speed up vaccination

Amid the surge in cases, Philippine officials vowed to accelerate vaccination of eligible individuals.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the national government plans to fully vaccinate 90 million Filipinos against COVID-19.

"Ang atin pong main objective ay mabakunahan ang 90 million na Filipino, sa bilang po na ito mayroon po tayong babakunahan na primary series sa 28 to 30 million na katao," Galvez said.

The Philippines has currently vaccinated 52 million Filipinos, the government said Tuesday.

Galvez also said the national government still needs to purchase 70 million doses for boosters and 26 million doses of vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 years old.—LDF, GMA News