No Second Wave of Covid-19 Cases in PH: DOH Exec

The country is not experiencing a second wave of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infections, a health official said Tuesday.

“We are not experiencing a second wave but an increase in the number of positive cases due to the increase in testing and because there is community transmission because of the lack of implementation of minimum health standards,” Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual Covid-19 presser.

Vergeire said the increase in cases “has been gradual and the country’s health system is able to cope with it”.

“This is reflected in our indicators, as of July 5, our case doubling time is still at 7.9 days. This means that it takes more than a week for the number of cases to double and we have enough resources to address the current need,” she added.

According to the DOH, the first few months of the enhanced community quarantine allowed the country to ramp up its health system capacity.

“There is no particular profile of cases seen in our data. The recent increase is due to clustering in barangays in the National Capital Region and in Cebu and in workplaces in the National Capital Region,” Vergeire said.

The DOH, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and concerned local government units have intensified their contact tracing and isolation protocols to contain the identified clusters. (PNA)