QUEZON CITY, (PIA) -- Department of Health (DOH) Epidemiology Director Dr. Alethea de Guzman has advised the public not to let their guard down and continue following minimum health protocols despite the significant drop in COVID-19 cases recently.

The public is also reminded by DOH to remain cautious despite the decreasing growth rate of COVID-19 especially with the existing Delta variant.

The infectious disease expert said the Philippines is now classified as a "low risk" area following the decline of cases in the country.

From June 13 to 26, DOH has reported a -9% two-week growth rate and a 5.42% average daily attack rate (ADAR) per 100,000 number of population which indicates the continuous plummeting of virus transmission with 5, 772 average daily cases as compared to the averaged 10, 845 daily cases in April except  the figures are still susceptive to ‘sudden increase.’

“Cases are still high and we don’t want the entry of these variants of concerns to push our cases again to levels na mao-overwhelm na naman ang ating health capacity,” Dr. de Guzman said.

Accordingly, four regions in the country are placed in high risk category including Regions 6,8,11, and 12. Among which, the highest documented number of ICU utilization were recorded in the Western Visayas and Eastern Visayas regions.

Meanwhile, the health department has described the National Capital Region (NCR) as an area in a "fragile" state with reference to the gradual decline of cases in the region that is not impossible to escalate again.

In a separate briefing, National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) Deputy Chief Implementer Secretary Vince Dizon encouraged the LGUs to strengthen the imposition of localized lockdowns as the vaccine rollout continues. 

According to the testing czar, this has been the strategy that controlled the infection surges in NCR, Region 3, and Region 4A.

Within a span of four days, the country was able to administer 1 million jabs from June 28 to July 1 which is by far the fastest rollout since the launch of national immunization program in March.

To date, the Philippines has already administered a total of 11 million inoculations bringing the daily average jabs to more than 250,000 out of the 500,000 daily inoculation target of the national government, per Secretary Dizon. (PIA-NCR with report from OJT Janna Pineda)