Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 5) — Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday slammed pronouncements that Cebu City could be moving close to the “endemic stage” of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying such careless remarks could lead to complacency.
OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David on Thursday said Cebu City is “probably close to what we call the endemic stage” because it is only recording an average of 15 new coronavirus cases per day.
But Vergeire stressed that it takes three to five years of intensive evaluation alongside the World Health Organization before a disease can be classified as endemic. She added an area needs to be observed for years and swab tests need to be taken from the general population.
“May mga criteria po na ginagamit para masabi na endemic na po ang isang lugar sa isang sakit. Hindi porket bumababa na ang kaso ay masasabi na po nating endemic,” she said in a media briefing.
[Translation: There are criteria being used before a disease can be called endemic in an area. We cannot say it is already an endemic disease just because cases are going down.]
The health official urged personalities to be more careful when making such statements because Filipinos may put their guards down against COVID-19.
“COVID-19 has a lot of uncertainties and unknowns. Hanggang ngayon ang ebidensya natin hindi pa kumpleto [Until now the evidence is not yet complete]. We still have a lot of variants we are monitoring across the globe. Hindi pa ho tayo [We’re not yet] out of the woods to say there are areas in our country already at that endemic stage,” she said.
In the endemic phase, the number of infections become relatively constant across years.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described an endemic as the constant presence of a disease in a population within an area, while a pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several continents.
