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MANILA, Philippines – After a record-breaking surge in infections driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, the entire Philippines is back to moderate risk case classification for COVID-19, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Wednesday, February 2.

“We show a negative one-week and two-week growth rate. Our average daily attack rate now is still at high-risk though it dropped to 19.43 cases per every 1,000 individuals. Our national health systems capacity, both total beds and intensive care units, are both low-risk,” Vergeire said in a press briefing.

The Philippines was placed under “critical risk” status on January 10 due to rising COVID-19 cases. On January 15, the Philippines saw its highest daily COVID-19 cases at 39,004.

Though cases have been declining for the past days, daily infections are still higher than what’s being reported before the Omicron surge happened.

On Wednesday, the Philippines logged 7,661 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest since January 4, when 5,434 cases were reported. The country now has 3,577,298 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Meanwhile, death toll due to the virus is now at 54,097.

The health spokesperson said that they noted uptick in hospital beds utilization for COVID-19 in Caraga and Soccsksargen at 72%. – Rappler.com