COVID-19

Surge in COVID-19 cases due to holidays may be seen this week – DOH

Bonz Magsambol

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Surge in COVID-19 cases due to holidays may be seen this week – DOH

File photo of a crowd of commuters along Ayala Avenue in Makati City

Inoue Jaena/Rappler

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire says 'nothing is certain' at this point in time, when asked about the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 cases

The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, January 11, said that the surge in COVID-19 cases due to holiday activities might be seen this week.

“We’re now looking at the trend of cases at binabantayan nga po natin, kasi nga baka ngayon lumabas ang epekto ng holiday activities (and are monitoring these, because the impact of holiday activities may be seen this week), Vergeire said in an interview with DZMM on Monday.

Vergeire earlier explained that several factors for monitoring cases were affected during the holiday season, such as the temporary suspension of operations of some testing hubs, the limited operations of testing centers, and the testing behavior of people since they were with their families. 

During Monday’s interview, Vergeire also said that the DOH has released reminders for those who attended the Feast of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo Church on Saturday, January 9. (READ: Devotees defy pandemic, troop to Quiapo Church for Nazareno 2021)

“Nagpalabas po kami ng aming mga paalala pagkatapos nitong pagdiriwang na ito na ma-monitor ng mga taong pumunta dun ang kanilang mga sarili,” Vergeire said. (We released guidelines for those who attended the celebration to monitor themselves.)

This year’s Traslacion left many Filipinos astounded as photos and videos of the event showed devotees ignoring standard health protocols in the middle of a pandemic.

Second wave?

Is there a possibility of a second wave of cases? Vergeire said that “nothing is certain” at this point in time, as cases during the holiday season have not yet been factored in, along with the detection of new COVID-19 variants.

“Katulad ngayon na maraming lumalabas na balita, and then there is this variant na nakikita natin sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng mundo. At andito ‘yung threat natin na hindi pa natin nakikita ang epekto noong nag-holiday, so titingnan po natin ang itatala ng mga kaso sa mga darating na araw,” she said.

(There are a lot of updates on COVID-19, and then there is this new variant that was found in different parts of the world. There is also the threat of not knowing the impact the holidays have had on us. We’ll see what the cases will reveal in the next few days.)

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The DOH said on Friday that aside from the UK variant – believed to be more infectious than the old variant of SARS-CoV2 – it is also monitoring other variants of the virus found in South Africa and Malaysia. (READ: Aside from UK COVID-19 variant, DOH monitoring 2 other virus mutations)

Despite the reported Filipino case in Hong Kong, the DOH maintained that the UK variant of COVID-19 is not yet on Philippine shores, as shown by the results of the PGC‘s genome sequencing released on Wednesday. (READ: DOH, Genome Center: No new COVID-19 variant yet in PH)

It remains unknown how and where the Filipina domestic worker contracted the UK variant of COVID-19. (READ: DOH still can’t tell where, how Hong Kong passenger got UK COVID-19 variant)

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On Saturday, the Philippines recorded 1,952 more COVID-19 cases, the highest in 3 weeks.

Meanwhile, the Octa Research Group earlier noted noted an uptick in COVID-19 cases in virus epicenter Metro Manila after the holidays.

The pandemic has infected over 90 million people globally. In the Philippines, a total of 487,690 cases have been reported as of Sunday, with 9,405 deaths and 458,198 recoveries. – Rappler.com

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Bonz Magsambol

Bonz Magsambol covers the Philippine Senate for Rappler.