DAILY cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) have continued to decline nationwide, although some areas in the Visayas and Mindanao are seeing a sustained increase in infections.
Based on the Department of Health (DOH) case bulletins, the seven-day moving average of new cases nationwide declined to around 5,250 as of Sunday, July 11, 2021, from nearly 5,500 on July 4 and around 5,600 on June 27.
In its case bulletin Sunday, the DOH reported 5,916 new infections, which brought the total case count to 1,473,025. Ten duplicates, including six recoveries, were removed from the count.
Three laboratories failed to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System on July 9, bringing the testing output down to 47,070 compared to around 50,000 a day in the last three days.
The daily positivity rate was 11.4 percent, less than 12 percent for 13 consecutive days.
The DOH also reported 105 additional deaths, including 53 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries but were found to be deaths upon final validation, and 6,127 recoveries.
The additional mortalities raised the Covid-19 death toll in the country to 25,921. The case fatality rate remained at 1.76 percent for the fifth straight day.
Total recoveries now stand at 1,397,403, or 94.9 percent of the total case count.
There remained 49,701 active cases in hospitals and isolation facilities nationwide, comprising 3.4 percent of the total count.
Two-week total
Among the five regions with the highest 14-day running total of new cases, Western Visayas, National Capital Region (NCR) and Central Luzon posted increases compared to the previous week.
Western Visayas had the second highest number of cases at 7,954 in the last 14 days to July 10, higher than the 7,691 on July 3.
The NCR had the third highest at 7,773, higher than the 7,577 as of July 3, while Central Luzon, which was on the fifth spot, counted 5,153 cases as of July 10 compared to 4,853 on July 3.
Calabarzon still had the highest two-week running total at 8,187 as of July 10, but this was slightly lower than the 8,217 cases as of July 3, while Davao Region posted a lower tally at 5,446 from 5,875 for the same period.
Among the cities and provinces, Davao City and Laguna Province remained at the top, but both posted declines.
Davao City counted a total of 2,832 new cases in the last 14 days to July 10, lower than the 3,170 as of July 3, while Laguna had 2,736 cases compared to 2,883 cases a week ago.
Cavite and Iloilo provinces both posted increases while Quezon City reentered the top 5 list.
Cavite had 2,237 cases as of July 10, higher than the 2,155 as of July 3, while Iloilo Province had 2,013 new infections compared to 1,886 in the previous week.
Quezon City, the biggest city in the country in terms of population, was on the fifth spot with 1,600 new cases over the last 14 days to July 10.
Rising cases
Globally, more than 186 million individuals have contracted the virus and over 4.02 million had died from the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 dashboard.
In a media briefing on July 9, infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said they noted a 16.7 percent increase in cases in Africa in the last seven days, a 16.4 percent increase in the Eastern Mediterranean region, a 33 percent increase across Europe, 8.6 percent increase in Southeast Asia and 10 percent increase in the Western Pacific region, under which the Philippines has been classified.
She also said there are more than two dozen countries that have epidemic curves that are almost vertical right now, which means that there have been a sustained increase in their Covid-19 cases.
“This is not the situation we should be in when we have the tools at hand,” said Kerkhove, who is the World Health Organization (WHO) technical lead for Covid-19.
She cited four major factors that are driving transmission worldwide.
The first three are the virus itself and its variants with increased transmissibility, increasing social mixing and mobility, and reduced or inappropriate use of public health safety and social measures, and
She pointed out that safety and social measures do not necessarily mean lockdowns.
“It’s a combination of interventions at the individual level to the community level, and it covers everything from wearing of masks, physical distancing, (and) avoiding crowded indoor spaces,” she added.
She urged the public to spend more time outdoors instead of indoors, improve ventilation and keep hands clean.
The fourth factor is the inequitable and uneven distribution of vaccines, Kerkhove said.
As of July 11, over 3.4 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
The bulk of vaccine recipients, however, are in the rich countries which cornered the vaccine supply.
“We have the upper hand here. Let’s use the tools that we have to keep transmission down and really be smart. Play it safe. Do what we can at an individual level measures...We all really need to play our part here,” she added. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)