As cases dip, gov’t urges public anew to get vaccinated vs Covid

By Jennifer Santos

MANILA – In a bid to strengthen the country’s protection against the resurgence of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the government is urging anew eligible individuals to get inoculated against the virus that killed hundreds of people across the world.

The Department of Health (DOH) as the number of people who have vaccinated rose to 92.8 percent of the total target population or 72,476,610 individuals, of whom 17.8 million have received their booster shots..

At press time, the DOH recorded 1,672 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily tally in over a month, raising the country’s total to 3,878,734.

Fifty-three new deaths were also reported – over 50 for the fourth day in a row – raising the total number of people in the country who succumbed to Covid-19 to 61,773.

Active cases stood at 26,168, while those who recovered from the illness have now reached 3,790,793, the DOH said.

Of the new infections, 563 are from Metro Manila.

From Aug. 22 to 28, the country recorded a daily average of 2,752 coronavirus infections, which is 19 percent lower compared to the previous week’s, the DOH said.

Of those, 110 were severe and critical.

A total of 807 or 10.5 percent of COVID-19 patients in hospitals were in severe and critical condition as of Sunday, said the DOH.

Meanwhile, the seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) has decreased to 862, OCTA Research Group said.

OCTA Research Group fellow Dr. Guido David said the figure is a 19 percent decrease from last week’s average of 1,062 cases.

He said NCR’s reproduction number, or the number of persons a case can infect, decreased from 0.99 (August 19) to 0.95 (August 26).

“A reproduction number less than one indicates decreasing infections,” he added.

The region’s current average daily attack rate is 5.98 per 100,000 population and is considered low.

Its seven-day positivity rate, the number of people who test positive for Covid-19, also decreased from 14.6 percent on August 18 to 12.7 percent as of August 25.

“Finally, the healthcare utilization rate for Covid-19 in the NCR remained low at 33.3 percent, while ICU (intensive care unit) occupancy was also low at 25.8 percent,” David said.