The Private Hospitals Association Philippines (PHAPI) urged the government Thursday to delay for two more weeks and monitor the trend of COVID-19 cases before de-escalating the National Capital Region to Alert Level 1.
PHAPI president Jose de Grano said people might disregard the minimum health standards with the planned shift to the lowest alert level.
“On our part, our recommendation is if possible, we wait for two more weeks. But if that is the decision of the IATF, we will follow,” De Grano said.
De Grano said the hospitals group was also wary of the possible surge in COVID-19 cases, considering the ongoing election campaign period.
“We are just worried that after the shift to Alert Level 1, if we ease the restrictions too much, people will not follow the minimum protocols. We might suddenly have a surge,” he said.
Mayors in the National Capital Region agreed to recommend the deescalation of the region’s status to Alert Level 1 from Alert Level 2 starting March 1.
Under Alert Level 1, intrazonal and interzonal travel shall be allowed without regard to age and comorbidities.
All establishments, persons, or activities, are allowed to operate, work, or be undertaken at full on-site or venue/seating capacity provided it is consistent with minimum public health standards.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, for his part, said NCR was already ready to shift to the loosest alert level with its current metrics.
Duque said Metro Manila’s metrics were already “ripe” for it to further ease its alert status.
“It does not mean that what I would say is already the position of the collective IATF, but if you would ask me, NCR has already passed the metrics. It is ripe, in other words,” he said.
Duque said that 83 percent of NCR’s senior citizens had been vaccinated, while over 100 percent of its target population are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
OCTA Research on Tuesday also reported that the positivity rate in the NCR has decreased to 4.9 percent, lower than the recommended 5 percent of the World Health Organization.
OCTA said this was the first time the positivity rate in the NCR decreased to less than 5 percent since December 26, 2021 prior to the COVID-19 surge caused by the more transmissible Omicron variant.
NCR also remained at “low risk” classification for COVID-19 with an average daily attack rate (ADAR) of 2.85 and a reproduction number of 2.85, it added.
OCTA Research Fellow Guido David said that coronavirus cases in Metro Manila continue to drop.
“We are projecting maybe less than 200 cases per day in NCR by March 1,” said David.
Meanwhile, medical and data experts said a safe pandemic exit is possible, and the private sector and individual citizens will play a big role in it.
Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said reopening the economy had now become even more urgent as the country has stepped into a critical level in its debt-to-GDP ratio. The war in the Ukraine has also driven up commodity prices worldwide and is expected to have an immediate effect as the local economy opens.
“We have to restore confidence so that Filipinos will go out and have more mobility,” said the Go Negosyo founder.
“A lot of our informal sector really depends on the formal sector going back to work,” said National Economic and Development Authority Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon. “We need a whole-of-society approach.”
