The Philippines on Wednesday reported a three-month low in its daily Covid-19 tally, but a health expert warned against being complacent ahead of the Christmas holidays.
The Department of Health logged 3,656 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, bringing the country’s total caseload since last year to more than 2.73 million. The daily tally was the lowest since July 14.
The death toll was up by five to 40,977, the department added, but noted that the low figure was due to technical issues with its data reporting system.
Rabindra Abeyasinghe, country representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the decline was “good news” but urged Filipinos to be careful as more people went out of their homes, going to malls, beaches and other commercial establishments.
“We still see a lot of transmission in some regions in the Philippines, including the capital region,” he said. “With the Christmas season coming, we have to be very careful in how we manage the next two to three months.”
“If people relax too much, there will be an upsurge in transmission again,” he added.
Abeyasinghe also stressed the need for the Philippines to increase vaccination coverage and testing nationwide.
“There is very selective testing in certain areas because of very limited testing capacity in these areas,” he said.
More than 24 million people, or over 22 per cent of the country’s total population, have been fully vaccinated since the government launched the vaccination programme in March.
