The Health Agency announces 134 new cases and 2 added deaths today. The NCR continued to own majority of cases with 53 recorded.

Only one LGU in the NCR had double digits – the City of Manila with 14 cases. All other LGUs had single digit numbers with three LGUs reporting zero covid. The latter were: Marikina, Malabon and Pateros.

Outside NCR, only one province reported double digit – Bulacan with 10 cases. Majority of the provinces and HUCs are now reporting zero cases or single digit number.

The Health Agency releases the week of April 25-May 1, 2022 summary report. While we had only 1399 new cases, the 7-day average cases stayed at 200 (the week before was 209) or a 5% drop in total cases for the week of April 25-May 1 versus April 18-24. Of the 215 deaths reported the past 7 days, only 40 of them were recent. The 175 were backlog cases. Incidentally, there were more deaths this week (215) than last week (213).

The over-all healthcare utilization is slightly down this week at 16.3% (vs 16.9% last week) for non ICU beds and at 16.1% (vs 16.9% last week) for ICU bed utilization. However, the number of severe and critical admissions did not significantly change (726 last week vs. 723 this week).

Vaccination coverage of eligible population as fully vaccinated is up from 74.98% to 75.45% this week. However, the number of vaccinees this week was an added 425,000+ people. A2 coverage is a tad up at 76.48% this week compared to 76.35% last week. There were less individuals who took advantage of a booster or additional dose this week (292,000+) compared to last week (297,000+).

Again, there were no added severe or critical cases this week. This should be interpreted with caution as this meant that these were patients who presented as critical/severe at the time of swabbing.

The Health Agency announces 188 new cases and 3 deaths today. NCR owned 75 or 40% of today’s cases. Only two LGUs reported double digits in NCR – Caloocan City 12 and Manila 11. The rest reported single digits with Marikina, Malabon and Pateros reporting zero covid.

Outside of NCR, two provinces reported double digits. Cavite 12 and Iloilo 15 (13 provinces, 2 city).

The Health Agency reports 253 new cases and 56 deaths for today. NCR had 96 cases today.

The full report on the rising effective reproduction numbers for the country below. Four LGUs report double digits. They were: Makati 13, Manila 12, Pasay and Quezon City 11, apiece. Other LGUs in NCR report single digit with one reporting zero covid – Pateros.

Provinces/HUCs that had double digit cases were: Cavite 15, and Puerto Princesa City 17.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

While the Philippines continued to report lower cases this week compared the previous, the decline in cases is actually slower now. Notice that the effective reproduction number is now at 0.90 (+/- 0.05). Meaning? We have reached a trough. The average daily cases will fluctuate between 150-250. And that’s really not good news. While the over-all healthcare system is not currently overwhelmed, the daily events on campaign and election pose a very high risk for a possible ‘surge’ in cases before the end of May. If that Rt breaches 1.0, we should be concerned.

For now, the 7-day average for the PH is at 187 new daily cases (1.68 per 1M population). A tad down for last week’s 210.

The fluctuation in deaths due to backlogs is frustrating. The Health Agency needs to clean up all data on mortalities immediately, while the cases are currently low so that real-time mortality rates can be correlated with the situation of the pandemic in the country and how these cases contribute to over-all mortality.

Comparing our data with other parts of East Asia, notice that the reproduction rate is highest is two Chinese nations – Taiwan and China. While all other countries are seeing a lower Rt, it is Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam that have made significant strides in lowering the numbers. With this, Indonesia’s cases are actually lower per capita than the Philippines.

South Korea sees a significant drop in their cases, while Taiwan and China see rising cases in their territories. On a per capita (number of cases/million population) basis, it is Taiwan that has moved up to third rank in this part of the region.