MANILA -- The country has gained momentum in its fight against COVID-19, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte said on Tuesday, stressing, however, that the public must continue adhering to government-mandated health protocols to sustain the current gains.
 

“One, we are slowly but surely making progress in our COVID-19 campaign. Second, I am very pleased to inform the entire nation that we continue to beat COVID-19. Recent statistics affirmed this,” President Duterte said in his weekly public address on government interventions on the pandemic.

“Salamat sa awa ng Diyos bumaba ang mga kaso. But we still have to follow health protocols being implemented by government if we really want to make a headway.”

He warned Filipinos that while the developments in the past few weeks show that the country is steadily beating COVID-19, they must remain careful and continue practicing mask use, physical distancing, hand hygiene, and getting COVID-19 shot whenever possible.

“Iyon lang ang tandaan niyo. Ang dati, iyong mask, hugas, iwas. Idagdag naman niyo por Diyos iyong ano iyong bakuna kay ‘yan man talaga ang pinaka,” he insisted.

Citing the importance of immunization, the President said Europe and the US have been experiencing surge in cases owing to the large number of people who remain unvaccinated and relaxation on the implementation of health protocols.

President Duterte went on to report that the country’s positivity rate further went down from 3.4 percent on November 18 to 2.3 percent Tuesday. In Metro Manila, the positivity rate went down from two percent from November 11 to 17, the lowest ever recorded since the region started testing for COVID-19.

The Department of Health (DOH) has reported a continuous decline in the number of active cases in the country, according to the President.

Citing recent data, he said active cases dipped to only less than 19,000 from more than 23,000 last November 18. “Our tally of new COVID-19 cases on November 18 was almost 1,300, but today, we only had 1,153 cases.”

As to the ongoing mass inoculation campaign, he said 76.5 million vaccine doses have been administered throughout the country as of Tuesday.

Of this number, 41.9 million are given the first dose, while more than 33.5 million are given a second dose and single-dose shots.

“I am very pleased to know that we have already vaccinated more than 3 million minors aged 12 to 17, as of today. Marami ‘yan, 3 million,” he said. (PND)