The Covid-19 public health emergency in the country remains despite the World Health Organization’s (WHO) lifting of such declaration, the Department of Health (DOH) announced on Tuesday.
“First of all we reiterate that the public health emergency of international concern that the WHO lifted is not equated to the pandemic,” DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said at a media forum, adding that the issue was discussed during a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on Monday night.
Vergeire, however, refused to reveal their recommendations to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., adding such recommendations would remain confidential until their submission on May 15 to the Chief Executive.
1,400 cases per day
Vergeire also revealed that the average Covid-19 cases per day has been pegged at 1,400.
“This is around [an] 87-percent increase from the previous that we have reported,” she said, adding that 96 percent of all of these cases are either “mild, asymptomatic or moderate cases.”
Meanwhile, around 4 percent are severe and critical.
The hospitals, she said, are also not overwhelmed.
As of May 8, the DOH logged 1,545 new Covid-19 cases. -30-