Corovonavirus Lockdown: Continuous Monitoring, Cases Plateauing in All Areas, and More!

More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.

A new sub-variant of the coronavirus has been detected in the Philippines but don't worry because the DOH is on top of the situation. 

https://mb.com.ph/2023/02/08/doh-assures-continuous-monitoring-of-covid-19-variants/

The Department of Health (DOH) assured the public that it is constantly monitoring the emergence of new Covid-19 variants in light of the detection of omicron subvariants XBB.1.5 and CH.1.1.

In a statement, the DOH said it is in constant coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) to determine the abilities of the current coronavirus variants circulating globally.

“The DOH is continuously monitoring these variants and coordinating with WHO for more guidance,” the health agency said.

The DOH also lauded the initiatives of both the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (UP-PGC) and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) for the detection of new variants.

It also assured “continuous surveillance at borders and communities and genome sequencing of Covid-19 variants.”

Meanwhile, the country’s hospital utilization rate remains at manageable levels, the DOH said.

“Even with these detections of these variants and subvariants, the important indicator is that our hospitals remain to have manageable number of Covid-19 admissions and severe/critical cases are manageable,” it said.

It's not as if the new variants have caused more deaths but it's good to keep us afraid. Why else would they tell us what the new dominant variant might be?

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1194827

The XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron, which is a mutation of the BA.2, could be a dominant variant in the country, a health official said Thursday.  

“I think it will be especially now that during the first month of January, the WHO [World Health Organization] reports that the top three fast rising variants or subvariant of Omicron one of that is XBB.1.5,” said infectious disease expert, Dr. Rontgene Solante, in a televised public briefing.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported the first case of XBB.1.5 and three cases of CH.1.1 which were part of the 1,078 samples sequenced by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center on Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.

The DOH is yet to disclose any definite information if the cases are local transmission or from an exposure abroad.

However, the XBB.1.5 is less likely to cause “a significant spike of the increase in cases”, Solante said.

“We need to monitor this subvariant of the Omicron because of those, it may cause severe cases, but we don’t know yet, that would be possible, but it is important that we monitor the cases that we will be having,” Solante said.

So this variant is "less likely" to cause an increase in cases which is good news but it could cause severe cases which is bad news. If the past is any measure it won't cause any more deaths than usual. 

School sports are making a comeback now that the pandemic is over. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1194619

The Department of Education (DepEd) said Tuesday the Palarong Pambansa would resume this year after an almost three-year halt due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. 

In a statement, the DepEd said the Division Schools of Marikina would host the sports competition. 

“The Department of Education announced the conduct of the 2023 Palarong Pambansa from July 29 to Aug. 5, 2023 in Marikina City, nearly three years since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic forced its cancellation,” it said. 

Meanwhile, the DepEd began the division meets on Monday, which will run until Friday. 

This will be followed by the regional meets on April 24 to 28, under DepEd Memorandum 5, series of 2023. 

The department said Filipino student-athletes abroad may also join the nationwide event. 

“Aside from student-athletes from the 17 DepEd regional athletic associations, Filipino athletes enrolled in recognized schools overseas will also be allowed to compete in individual sports under the banner of Philippine Schools Overseas,” it added. 

And so are cruise ships. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1728090/ppa-says-cruise-ships-now-back-in-ph-after-3-year-hiatus

Cruise ships made their grand return to Philippine shores after a three-year hiatus due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

On Thursday, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) announced cruise ships returned to boost the tourism industry again, reviving its operations to reach various regions of the nation.

“It is about time that we live with the new normal and the PPA is proud to welcome again these international luxury ships to our shores as we bounce back from the effects of the pandemic,” PPA General Manager Jay Santiago said in a statement.

Among the provinces that will be visited by cruise ships from Feb. 9 to 14 are:

• Ilocos Sur
• Palawan
• Bohol

In 2019, the Ports of Salomague, Palawan, and Tagbilaran could accommodate 48,100 tourists.

But in 2020 and 2021, cruise ships canceled their voyages due to the COVID-19 threat to the tourists and locals.

That's good for tourism cruise ships have more important worries than COVID-19 such as norovirus outbreaks. 

The vaccine program is going strong amongst children. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1194899

The Agusan del Sur town of Loreto has obtained a 102.82 percent vaccination rate for coronavirus disease 2019 among children aged 5 to 11-years-old.

The achievement is the first so far in the Caraga Region based on data from the regional Department of Health (DOH) office as of Feb. 4.

“The DOH-13, working with the different LGUs, will continue to conduct information and dissemination activities to motivate and encourage parents to have their children vaccinated for protection against Covid-19,” DOH-13 said in a statement Friday.

As of Feb. 4, at least 5,290 children aged 5 to 11 are fully-vaccinated against Covid-19 in Loreto, equivalent to 102.82 percent of its goal of 5,145 children in this age group.

Four other local government units (LGUs) in the region also achieved over 90 percent vaccination rate among the 5 to 11-year-old children.

How many of these children will still be alive in ten years and how many more will have developed severe heart problems? We shall have to wait and see. 

The nation has seen a slight uptick in cases and even registered a few new deaths. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195124

The country’s daily average of new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases increased by 9 percent from Feb. 6 to 12, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Monday.

In the latest DOH case bulletin, daily infections increased to 157 in the recent week from 145 infections from Jan. 30 to Feb. 5.

The DOH also reported 1,101 new cases and 98 verified deaths.

Of the additional deaths, six occurred from Jan. 30 to Feb. 12.

To date, the country has logged over 4.07 million coronavirus cases and more than 65,949 fatalities.

During the same week, no cases were added to the tally of severe and critical infections, which also went up to 426 from the previous week’s 388.

Without knowing the status of the individuals who died, such as age and whether or not they had comorbidities, that information is useless. 

Across the nation COVID cases are plateauing.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/860742/doh-covid-19-cases-plateauing-in-all-areas/story/

The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday said COVID-19 cases in all areas of the country have recently started plateauing.

At a press briefing, DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire presented the COVID-19 cases monitored in the National Capital Region, the rest of Luzon, in Mindanao, and the Visayas.

She added that while the decline in ICU admissions had slowed down, admissions of severe and critical cases continued to trend downwards.

However, Vergeire cautioned that there were still risks from COVID-19 due to mutations, new subvariants in other countries, open borders, and ongoing transmissions.

“We cannot say na wala tayong risk sa ngayon dahil (that there is no longer a risk because) the risk of the virus is still here,” she said.

Furthermore, Vergeire could not say if the Philippines could be placed under the lowest level of restriction - an Alert Level 0 -adding that authorities may discuss possible ways to “move forward” with safety precautions still in place.

What exactly is the risk? It's not death. So what is it? 

People who lost their jobs during the pandemic and were forced to move back to the provinces are being helped out by the government.  

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1195045

Breadwinners of families who lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic have benefited from the PHP16.9 million worth of poverty alleviation projects implemented in Bohol’s coastal town of Lila, a social welfare official said Monday.

Shalaine Marie Lucero, regional director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Central Visayas, said Lila’s municipal government received a community grant of PHP7.6 million from the Kapangyarihan at Kaunlaran sa Barangay (KKB) funding.

KKB is a modality of the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) program which aims to help the poor localities improve their livelihood as well as address the lack of access to basic social services.

Lucero said the amount helped family beneficiaries of the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program (BP2P) organized by the government to assist people who wanted to go back home to their home provinces at the height of the global public health crisis.

A total of 653 households benefited from the program. They were from the villages of Calvario (184); Bonkokan Ilaya (140); Macalingan (122); Lomanoy (111)and Candulang (96).

“The program provides holistic interventions to families affected by the pandemic. Municipalities that availed of these funds must have at least 25 families working in the highly urbanized cities who lost their jobs from pandemics and opted to return to their respective provinces for good,” she told the Philippine News Agency.

Through the fund, Lila put a health station in the village of Macalingan and concreted four farm-to-market roads totaling 0.655 kilometers in Barangays Bonkokan Ilaya, Candulang, Lomanoy, and Calvario.

Apart from the PHP7.6 million development grant, Lucero said the town also received a 14-unit isolation facility worth PHP9.3 million through the additional financing (AF) modality of the program to support and augment its resources for health as the 5th-class agricultural municipality is still reeling from the effects of the pandemic.

One of the beneficiaries, Marla Flor Biangcong, cited the project for helping her and other workers displaced by lockdowns and border restrictions.

“As a beneficiary of the Balik Probinsiya Program, I am thankful because not only did I receive assistance for my family but my return to my hometown contributed to projects for the community,” Biangcong said, referring to the small-scale infrastructure project where she played an important role as a volunteer.

This sounds like the public works administration implemented during the Great Depression in the USA,