Officials of the World Health Organization said precautionary measures against COVID-19 such as wearing of face masks and maintaining hand hygiene must also be observed against influenza.
WHO Director for Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness Dr. Sylvie Champaloux Briand said these measures may prevent the transmission of respiratory viruses, especially as the flu season in the Northern Hemisphere begins.
“COVID and flu are both respiratory viruses and so some very simple precautionary measures such as washing hands, wearing a mask in crowded spaces, or wearing a mask if you have respiratory symptoms so that you don’t contaminate others, they work for both diseases,” Briand said.
WHO COVID-19 technical lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove recommended taking vaccines that protect from both COVID-19 and the flu.
“As the world is opening up and people are mixing again, we’re starting to see circulation of other viruses,” she said.
“So, it is really important that we put measures in place, and we use the measures that are in place to reduce the spread and to protect people who are most vulnerable for developing severe disease, and one of those measures is vaccination,” she added.
On Sunday, the Department of Health logged 2,097 new COVID-19 cases—the fourth straight day of more than 2,000 new infections reported. Among the top regions with the highest cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region with 12,159 followed by Calabarzon with 5,359, Central Luzon with 2,709, Davao Region with 1,421, and Western Visayas with 869.
Still, NCR’s positivity rate has slightly decreased to 18.1 percent as of October 7, the independent monitoring OCTA Research Group said Sunday.
In a tweet, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said this was a decrease from 19.1 percent recorded on October 1.
Positivity rate refers to the percentage of people found positive for COVID-19 against the total number of individuals tested at a given period.
David said the positivity rates in Batangas (from 13.9 percent to 10.9 percent), Bulacan (from 20.4 percent to 17.7 percent), and Laguna (19.7 percent to 16.9 percent) have similarly decreased.
Only three provinces had a COVID-19 positivity rate that was over 20 percent, namely Tarlac at 32.8 percent, Rizal at 26.1 percent and Cavite at 24 percent.
