DESPITE continued case increases in most regions, the entire nation and all regions remain at low-risk Covid case classification, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday.
In a press briefing, DOH Officer-in-Charge Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that most areas show a continuous increase in cases, with the National Capital Region showing the steepest increase—now at almost 900 cases per day.
“Mindanao shows a continued slow increase trend,” Vergeire said.
Meanwhile, Vergeire said severe and critical cases remain at around 600 admissions.
Vergeire said that 816 additional BA.5 cases have been detected, of which 686 were tagged as recovered.
All regions detected the variant, except Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Twelve returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) tested positive for the BA.5 variant.
Of the newly infected, 560 individuals are fully vaccinated while the vaccination status of the remaining 256 individuals is still being verified.
“At the moment, exposure of individuals is still unknown and travel histories are being verified,” the DOH official said, adding that three individuals presented moderate symptoms while the disease severity of the remaining 813 are still being verified.
There are still 78 people undergoing isolation, while the outcome of the 52 other cases are being verified.
For the BA.4 subvariant, 42 additional cases were detected; 36 were tagged as recovered.
Ten individuals from Region 12, 9 from Region 11, 7 from Region 6, 4 each from NCR and Region 5, 3 from Region 4A, one each from Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and BARMM, and 3 ROFs tested positive for the BA.2.12.1 variant.
Thirty-one of the infected are fully vaccinated while the vaccination status of the remaining 11 individuals is still being verified.
“At the moment, the exposure of individuals, travel histories, and health status are being verified,” Vergeire said.
There are 36 individuals who are now tagged as recovered, 5 are still undergoing isolation, while the outcome of one case is still being verified.
BA.2.12.1
MEANWHILE, 52 additional BA.2.12.1 cases were detected and 49 were already tagged as recovered. At least one individual each from Regions 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 4A, CAR, Caraga, and NCR tested positive for the BA.2.12.1 variant.
Twenty-six individuals are fully vaccinated, 5 are partially vaccinated, while the vaccination status of the remaining 21 are still being verified.
“Despite the increase in Covid-19 cases, national and all regions remain at low risk case classification, while the number of severe and critical admissions remain less than 1,000 at the national level,” Vergeire concluded.