An infectious disease expert urged Filipinos to get their booster shots and follow the minimum health protocols, especially the vulnerable, so that the country will enjoy the holiday season with decreased Covid-19 cases.
The country reported more than 16,017 cases of Covid-19 during the week of September 26 to October 2 or an average of 2,288 cases per day, 10 percent lower than the week of September 19 to 25, according to the Department of Health (DoH) .
In a briefing on Tuesday, DoH Technical Advisory Group member Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana said that he is hopeful that the country will have a low number of transmissions just like what happened in December 2021, which reported cases of lower than 200 cases per day before the Omicron surge.
“We know how to live with the virus at this point, and if we want to have a good Christmas, we urge our countrymen to get their booster shots so that we can increase our insurance and we won’t experience any case spikes,” Salvana said.
He also added that it is up to the public to have a sustained decrease in the number of cases through continuous masking even if the mandate has been lifted in low-risk, outdoor areas.
He also said that the Omicron variant will not be the “last” Covid-19 variant that the world will experience, as there are still many people who are not yet vaccinated or have not yet received their boosters.
“While there are still pockets of the population that are unvaccinated, the threat of a new variant is always there and we need to remain vigilant, and to protect who are those vulnerable,” Salvana said.
The country has so far boosted 19.7 million, which is 25 percent of the 78 million target population for the booster dose.
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