DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Friday, September 16, 2022, that they are also seeing the end of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic in the country.
“Sa Pilipinas kapag tinignan natin, ako personally, and even the Department feels that we are seeing na mukhang matatapos na nga,” he said in a press briefing.
Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the end of the Covid-19 pandemic is already “in sight,” citing the significant drop of newly reported Covid-19 cases.
It said the world should step up in implementing protocols against Covid-19 and “seize the opportunity.”
"If we don't take this opportunity now, we run the risk of more variants, more deaths, more disruption, and more uncertainty," the WHO said.
But Vergeire reminded the public that the virus will stay.
She reiterated the need to continuously increase the country’s wall of immunity against Covid-19, especially through vaccination.
“Expectedly, it will still cause outbreaks every now and then. Expectedly, it will still cause one to two deaths or some deaths every now and then because hindi naman mawawala 'yang Covid-19, nandiyan 'yan,” she said.
“What we need to do, strengthen our system, strengthen the immunity of the population, make our facilities ready so that pag dumating ‘yang punto na ‘yan lahat tayo prepared, wala tayong pangangamba, tayo po ay protektado,” she added.
From September 5 to 11, the DOH recorded a 10 percent drop in the daily average cases nationwide as compared to the week prior.
The country currently has a total of 24,843 active Covid-19 cases.
Vergeire said the National Capital Region (NCR) reverted back to moderate risk classification with P16.4 percent positivity rate over the past week.
She said the slight increase in positivity rate in Metro Manila cannot yet be attributed to the lifting of the mandatory wearing of face masks policy in open spaces.
“Hindi natin pwede i-attribute ang pagtaas ng kaso sa pagtanggal ng mask (mandate) outdoors, it will take us one to two weeks to analyze its effects. What we can say is tumaas ang mobility since face-to-face classes (started),” she added. (SunStar Philippines)