The World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative to the Philippines on Wednesday said that the Alert Level 3 raised in Metro Manila until Jan. 15 was sufficient to contain the spread of Covid-19.
“[W]e are looking closely at the current Alert Level 3…we are seeing a significant reduction in mobility and if yesterday’s reduction in number is an indication maybe the current alert levels are adequate,” Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said in a “Laging Handa” briefing.
The Palace earlier said that among the considerations to escalate an area’s alert level were hospital bed utilization, two-week growth rate and average daily attack rate.
Abeyasinghe said the WHO had yet to see “signs of the healthcare system being overwhelmed.”
“Right now, we don’t see that. Projections are that the Philippines may be able to avert that even if current trends are continued until about the end of this month, meaning that red line analysis that we have done projects that we can manage the health systems to about Jan. 27 or 28,” he said.
According to the Department of Health, bed occupancy in Metro Manila as of Jan. 9 was at 61.2 percent, or 6,115 beds occupied out of 9,995.
The occupancy rate is under “moderate” risk.
Metro Manila has 107,884 active Covid-19 cases as of Jan. 11, more than half of the 208,164 national total.
It is under Alert Level 3 until Jan. 15. John Ezekiel J. Hirro