Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 26) —The OCTA Research group on Tuesday warned that active COVID-19 cases in the country could reach from 50,000 to 100,000 soon, considering the surge in infections in other countries due to subvariants.
“We are seeing a possible increase in cases. Actually, it could happen any time. Ang dahilan diyan, we are seeing a surge in South Africa and Delhi, India. These are countries na medyo similar ang characteristics sa Philippines,” said OCTA Research fellow Guido David in a public briefing.
[Translation: We are seeing a possible increase in cases. Actually, it could happen any time. The reason for that is we are seeing a surge in South Africa and in Delhi, India. These are countries with similar characteristics with the Philippines.]
“Ang concern natin ay kapag nakapasok itong bagong subvariant dito sa Philippines, magkakaroon na rin ng pagtaas ng cases,” he added.
[Translation: Our concern is that if the new subvariants ever enter the Philippines, there will be a rise in cases.]
The country experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases last January due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The Department of Health earlier said that the two new Omicron COVID-19 subvariants — BA.4 and BA.5 — should not be a cause for concern yet. The subvariants were detected in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Denmark and the UK.
Meanwhile, BA.2.12, another Omicron sub-variant, was detected in India.
However, OCTA said the possible uptick would not be as severe as the surge last January.
“The good news [is] we are not expecting a high number of hospitalizations tulad nung January, dahil mataas ‘yung levels ng vaccination natin,” said David.
[Translation: The good news is we are not expecting a high number of hospitalizations like in January, because we have high levels of vaccination now.]
The Department of Health logged 1,465 new COVID-19 infections and 213 fatalities in the week of April 18 to 24. Based on its weekly case bulletin, the daily average was 209 new infections, 12% lower than the previous week.
There were no new critical cases recorded but 726 critically infected persons are currently staying in hospitals.
OCTA said the possible increase in cases could be prevented as long as more people will get vaccinated and boosted against coronavirus.
“Preventable naman siya basta magdadag tayo ng protection natin, baka hindi tayo makakita ng pagtaas ng cases,” said David. “Pero I mean preventable up to a certain extent, baka mabawasan natin ‘yung severity niyan.”
[Translation: It is preventable as long as we add more protection, then we may not experience an uptick in cases. But I mean preventable up to a certain extent, perhaps we could lessen its severity.]
As of April 22, over 67 million individuals have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while at least 12.93 million have received their booster doses.
