The Health Agency announces 308 new cases (it’s been awhile since we have hit the 300 mark) with half of the cases coming from NCR alone. While there are no added deaths today, 6 LGUs in Mega Manila report double digits. This was led by Quezon City with 36 cases. The rest were: Manila 21, Parañaque 19, Makati 17, Pasig 14, and Taguig 10. Marikina, Malabon and Pateros had zero covid today.

Provinces outside of NCR that reported double digits today were: Cavite 14, Bulacan 10, Negros Occidental 11 (province 7, Bacolod City 4), Cebu 14 (city 11, province 3). Zambaonga City had 8 and General Santos 6 cases.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

According to the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19—8-june-2022) situation report, as of June 8, the world continued to see a decline in new COVID-19 cases with a 12% drop from the previous week. While there are certain areas where there is still a high number of cases, the omicron variant and its sub variants are the dominant circulating serotypes globally.

The clinical characteristics of omicron sublineages are provided in the summary below. Not that there currently are NO studies on relative transmissibility for BA.4 and BA.5 compared to BA.1 and BA.2. There is also no currently available evidence suggesting a difference in disease severity from the BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages compared to BA.1.

In the same report, a summary of the vaccine effectiveness of a primary series plus ONE booster vaccination against omicron (VOC) is provided.

“To date, 22 studies from 10 countries have assessed the duration of protection of five vaccines against the Omicron variant…Findings from these studies show reduced VE of COVID-19 primary series vaccines against the Omicron variant for all outcomes (severe disease, symptomatic disease, and infection) than has been observed for the other VOCs. Importantly though, VE estimates against the Omicron variant remain higher for severe disease, in the majority of studies. Booster vaccination substantially improves VE for all outcomes and for all combinations of schedules with estimates available for both primary series and booster vaccination. VE declines more with time after booster vaccination for symptomatic disease and infection than it does for severe disease; however, studies that assess VE of booster vaccination beyond six months are needed to evaluate the longer duration of protection.”

The past seven days saw the Philippines experience a slight bump up in cases. The average daily cases are now at 227 new cases/day, the over-all reproduction rate has stabilized to around 1.1 (+/- 0.05), with different areas/regions/HUCs/provinces seeing different Rt numbers. NCR has a Rt of 1.3 (+/- 0.05) as of 3 days ago. Numbers will continue to slightly bump up but as long as the hospital utilization rate remains low, then the region remains to be at low risk.

In general, the Philippines continues to be at low risk compared to the other ASEAN and some East Asian neighbors.

Based on per capita (cases per million population), Taiwan continued to lead as the cases began to decline but saw a sudden uptick the past few days. The data in ourworldindata.org showed a summary of Indonesia having 0 numbers, but this is due to inaccurate input of data. The 7-day average of Indonesia is at 504 cases/day, and should be right after Vietnam.

The Health Agency announces 297 new cases today, with no added deaths. The National Capital Region owned 151 (51%) of the cases for the day.

Six LGUs in the NCR reported double digits today. This was led by Quezon City with 36 cases. The other with double digits were: Manila 22, Makati 18, Taguig 16, Parañaque 13, Caloocan 11. Both Muntinlupa and Pasig had 7 cases each today. Three LGUs had zero covid. They were: Valenzuela, Malabon and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, the following provinces/HUCs had double digits: Cavite 12, Rizal 10, and Iloilo 11 (city 1, province 10). Other areas with slightly higher than usual numbers were: Davao City 8, Palawan 6, General Santos City 5, and Baguio City 4.

The Health Agency announces 282 new cases and 5 added deaths today. The 7-day positivity rate is up at 1.8% today. Mega Manila continued to lead, owning 121 of todays cases (43%).

Quezon City led with 32 cases, followed by Makati 20, Manila 16 and Pasig 10. Those with more than 5 but less than 10 cases were: Muntinlupa 7, Mandaluyong and Parañaque 6 apiece, and Taguig 5. Navotas and Pateros were the only LGUs with zero covid.

Outside of NCR, the following provinces/HUCs saw double digits or higher than usual cases. They were: Cavite 17, Tarlac 14, Bulacan 13, Iloilo 13 (province 12, city 1), Cebu 12 (province 7, city 5), Pampanga 9, Bacolod City 6, Davao City 6.

The Health Agency announces 252 new cases today with positivity rate up at 1.7%. No additional death were added. Note that HALF or 125 cases are from the NCR alone. This is relatively high as the NCR shoots three digits today.

Mega Manila had 5 LGUs with double digits. Quezon City 34, Manila 22, Parañaque 14, Las Piñas 13, and Makati 11. Three LGUs had zero COVID. They were: Malabon, Navotas and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, the province of Rizal and Davao City had both 11 cases. While others had single digit numbers, it is worthy mentioning that South Cotabato and Southern Leyte had 7 cases apiece.

The Health Agency announces 192 new cases with no added deaths today. The NCR owned 43% of the cases for the day. Two LGUs in NCR had double digits – Quezon City 16 and Makati 12. While majority had single digit numbers, the cases are slightly higher in some of these LGUs than usual. For example, Muntinlupa has been reporting more than 5 cases (6 today) in the past couple of days. Mandaluyong also had 6 cases, as well as Parañaque. Only one LGU had zero covid today – Pasay City.

Outside of NCR, no province or HUC had double digits. However, those that saw increase cases were: Pangasinan 9 and Davao City 5.

The Health Agency announces 168 new cases with no added deaths today. But NCR reported 95 of these. The LGUs in NCR with the most cases today were: Quezon City 22, Makati 15, Muntinlupa and Pasig 9 each, Parañaque and Manila 8 apiece and Taguig with 7. Three LGUs in NCR had zero covid today. They were: Navotas, San Juan and Pateros.

No other province or HUC outside of NCR had double digit cases. The Rt in NCR is up at 1.25 (+/-0.05) as the cases continue to rise and the 7-day positivity rate is at 1.6%.

The Health Agency announces the new cases for the week of May 30-June 5, 2022 was at 1,295. This means that we had a 7-day average of 185 cases/day or a 1.4% lower number of cases compared to May 23-29, where the cases for that week totaled 1,317 (or a 7 day average of 188 daily new cases). These numbers mean – THERE WAS NO CHANGE IN THE WEEK ON WEEK NUMBER OF CASES.

What stood out, however, was that this week, there ere 16 severe and critical cases (compared to the 12 last week) and there was one added death (which occurred in January 2022). There was no recent death reported.

In terms of healthcare utilization, non-ICU bed utilization was at 18.1% (vs. 17.2% the previous week) and ICU bed utilization at 14.7% (compared to 16.8% the previous week). Severe and critical admissions are down to 599 (vs. 679 the previous week).

Fully vaccinated is at 77.20% (compared to 77% the previous week) as only a little more than 155,000 were added. The A2 is also slightly up at 77.33% (compared to the 77.29% previous week). Only 174,278 had boosters/additional doses given this past week compared to the close to 240,000 the week of May 23-29, 2022.

The Health Agency announces 179 new cases with no added deaths today. The not so good news part is that of the 11,260 individuals tested on June 5, 200 or 1.8% tested positive.

The NCR owned 80 (45%) of the cases today. Three LGUs that had double digits today were: Quezon City 17, Manila 13, and Las Piñas 10. Those reporting an unusually uptick in cases included Muntinlupa with 6 and Makati with 7. LGUs in Mega Manila with zero covid were: Marikina, Malabon, San Juan and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, Cavite reported double digits with 13 cases. Other provinces/HUCs with slight bump up of cases were: Bulacan 8, Zamboanga City 6, Cagayan 4, and Ifugao 3.

The Health Agency announces 219 new cases with no added deaths today. It was NCR that is on a upward roll with 111 (>50%) of the days numbers.

LGUs in NCR with double digits today were: Quezon City 23, Makati 22, Manila 16 and Parañaque 13. Those with zero covid were: Navotas and Pateros.

No province reported double digits today.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

East Asia is seeing a decline in cases, as most of the countries are seeing lowering or stable reproduction numbers. Three countries continue to have five-digit 7-day averages. This is led by Taiwan that has more than 75,000 daily cases, Japan with ~20,000 and South Korea which drops to a little more than 12,000 cases.

Thailand, Singapore,, Malaysia and Vietnam have low four digit numbers, while the rest including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Brunei, China and the Philippines are seeing lower triple digits.

On a per capita basis (number of cases per million population), Taiwan continued to lead with more than 3000 per million people. Brunei, Singapore, South Korea and Japan have triple digits and when compared to population size, it is Japan that is seeing less cases based on per capita with 161 cases/million people. Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam are seeing double digits per capita, while the Philippines, Indonesia are at single digit with 1.16 and 1.10 per million people, respectively.

Only China has <1.0 case per million people.

The Health Agency announces 213 new cases with no added deaths today. The NCR owned 105 of these cases as the reproduction rate in Mega Manila is up at 1.15 (+/- 0.05). Five LGUs in Mega Manila report double digits today. They were: Makati 16, Taguig 15, City of Manila 12, Muntinlupa 11, and Paranaque 10. Only two LGUs report zero covid. These were: Pateros and Navotas.

Outside of NCR, only the province of Rizal had double digits today with 14 cases.

The Health Agency announces 225 new cases today with 1 death (from the NCR). Half of the cases today are from NCR with 112 cases. Positivity rate in the country is up at 1.2% from 1.1%.

In the NCR, it is the City of Makati that led the double digit haul in this region with 24 new cases. Other LGUs with double digits were: Quezon City 18 and Manila 12. Many LGUs in Mega Manila, while reporting single digits reported slightly higher than usual numbers. These were: Pasig, Parañaque, Pasay, Mandaluyong with 8 cases apiece and Las Piñas with 9 new cases today. Five LGUs had zero covid. These were: Marikina, Malabon, Navotas, San Juan and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, it was the provinces of Cavite and Laguna that had double digits. Cavite had 20 while Laguna reported 14 cases today. Remember, when NCR sees an uptick, the immediate provinces in the border of the National Capital Region will follow.