Although the country is headed in the right direction in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health underscored the importance of remaining vigilant against the further spread of the virus.
“Kailangan natin intindihin pag nagsabi tayo ng flattening the curve. Kasi iniiwasan nga nating sabihin yan dahil ayaw nating magkaroon ng complacency among our population,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said when asked to comment about the UP OCTA Research Group’s statement that the COVID-19 curves in Metro Manila and Calabarzon are flattening.
[We have to understand what flattening the curve means. Because we’re avoiding saying that because we don’t want our population to be complacent.]
Flattening the curve only means that the country is preventing sudden spikes in cases and instead delay the spread of virus. This is also meant to protect the country’s health system from being overwhelmed with patients.
Vergeire nevertheless acknowledged that the situation has improved as transmission rate or reproduction number is now at 0.977.
“It is less than 1 already. And sinasabi nga ng WHO (World Health Organization) and other reputable international organizations na kapag less than 1 ang transmission rate mo, nandun ka sa tamang direksyon (What the WHO and other reputable international organizations are saying is that if your transmissionr ate is less than 1, you are headed in the right direction),” she said.
A transmission rate of more than 1 means that a patient can infect one or more people. If the rate is below 1 then it means the spread of the disease has slowed down.
Vergeire said critical care utilization or hospital occupancy of COVID-19 cases is now a 50% for the whole country. She also warned the public to not be complacent as the situation can become worse if strict health precautions are not followed.
“Nothing is certain at this point. We just continue to monitor our situation. We continue to do our strategies so we can further decrease the number of cases,” she said.
