Philippines Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report #74 1212 April 2021 Data Reported by the Department of Health on 12 April 2021
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Philippines Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report #74 1212 April 2021 Data reported by the Department of Health on 12 April 2021 Situation summary (Highlights of the current report) • Out of a total 876,225 confirmed cases reported in the 876,225 Philippines as of today, 54% are male, with the most affected age group 20-29 years (26%) followed by the age group 30-39 years Cases (23.6%) • 44% of the total number of cases are from the National Capital Region (NCR), followed by CALABARZON (17%), Central Luzon 703,625 (7.5%), Central Visayas (6.2%), Western Visayas (3.7%). • Out of the total 15,149 confirmed deaths, 60% are male, with the Recoveries most affected age group over-70 (35.3%) followed by the age group 60-69 years (27.7%). • 37.88% of the total number of deaths reported are from the NCR, 15,149 followed by CALABARZON (12.8%), Central Visayas (12%), Central Luzon (9%), Western Visayas (5%). Deaths • Currently, there are 170 functional laboratories performing tests for COVID-19 using RT-PCR or GenXpert • 1,093,651 individuals have received their 1 st dose of vaccine (576,561 with Sinovac and 517,090 with AstraZeneca) from 2,869 vaccination sites nationwide. 884,367 frontline HCW have received their first dose of vaccine. Transmission assessment At national level, the Philippines remains in Stage 2, localised community tr ansmission with some geographic areas showing higher transmission intensity and indications of widespread community transmission. There is ongoing evidence of an increasing trend in the number of cases and higher transmission in Region 3, Region 4A, and in the NCR which are at Stage 3, large scale community transmission . At national level, the bed occupancy rate for COVID-19 allocated beds is currently at 51.6% occupancy, with variation between regions. Epidemiology As of 12 April 2021, a total of 876,225 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 15,149 deaths have been reported in the Philippines. The case fatality rate is 1.7%. Epi Update Tests Cases Deaths ICU Occupancy COVID-19 676,204 144,331 1,963 65.39% Tests past 14 days Cases in past 14 days Deaths in past 14 days 10,169,468 876,225 15,149 2,228 Cumulative unique Cumulative cases Cumulative deaths ICU beds for individuals tested COVID-19 cases 9.4% Cumulative Positivity Rate Health service 15,866 1,286 30,096 127,587 provision Healthcare worker cases Hospitals admitting Non-ICU beds for TTMF beds for COVID-19 (cumulative) COVID-19 patients COVID-19 cases COVID-19 cases 1 Philippines Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report #74 1212 April 2021 Data reported by the Department of Health on 12 April 2021 Strategic approach to COVID-19 Prevention, Detection and Control Health service delivery WHO Philippines (WHO PHL) continues to support the institutionalization of the One Hospital Command System in the Philippines both on its immediate needs and long-term plan. WHO PHL is regularly providing technical assistance to the Department of Health (DOH) One Hospital Command Center (OHCC) in monitoring the COVID-19 bed allocation and hospital and Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facility occupancy of NCR and other priority regions. The government and the private sector continue to expand the healthcare capacity in response to the increasing number of cases in NCR Plus (NCR, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal) and other priority areas. As of 11 April 2021, 104 hospitals (private and public) committed to add 164 ICU beds and 1,157 regular beds in NCR Plus. In addition to the hospital beds, modular hospitals in Caloocan and Quezon City were also built to accommodate moderate and severe cases. New isolation facilities were activated for mild and asymptomatic cases as well as for step-down care. Several tents were provided by WHO PHL and UNICEF for expansion of hospital triage and isolation. For healthcare workforce augmentation, DOH has also deployed several healthcare workers from different regions of the country to NCR hospitals. A pre-hospital triage system at the local government units is being established to ensure that the beds in the hospitals, both government and private, and isolation facilities will be appropriately utilized. It is critical that the community and facilities adhere to the healthcare pathways resulting to the appropriate referral and back referral systems and efficient and rational utilization of these facilities. Regular collaboration with the Risk Communications and Community Engagement and Regional Outreach Pillar has provided an opportunity to increase awareness of the community on the appropriate healthcare pathway. Laboratory and Testing At present, the COVID-19 laboratory network is composed of 210 licensed and functional laboratories across the Philippine archipelago. The COVID-19 laboratory network has tested over 10.9 million cumulative samples with a cumulative positivity rate of 9.5%. The average turnaround time of running COVID-19 tests upon receipt of the samples by the laboratory is within 24 to 48 hours. Using the WHO Training Package, the DOH, led by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the Epidemiology Bureau (EB), conducted the training of trainers on proper use of Ag rapid detection tests (Ag RDTs) among local governments in the NCR Plus. The use of Ag RDTs will support accelerate the access to reporting results, decongestion of outpatient departments and additionally support outbreak investigation. Recording and reporting guidelines are being developed. Bio-surveillance activities continue with weekly 750 samples from across the regions and provinces for genomic sequencing. As of April 10, 2021, a total of 5671 cumulative samples were sequenced nationwide. Among the variants of concern detected, B.1.1.7 variant has the highest number of cases accounting for 392 cases, B.1.351 variant with 344 cases and P.1 variant with 2 cases. In addition, the P.3 variant which was first detected in the Philippines and Japan has increased to 123 cases. Moreover, the Doherty Institute has commenced an initial review of biosurveillance data with the DOH, EB, RITM, UP National Institutes for Health and the Philippine Genome Center. This collaboration aims to set a sustainable whole genome sequencing protocol and meaningful analysis for reporting, policy and action. 2 Philippines Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report #74 1212 April 2021 Data reported by the Department of Health on 12 April 2021 Risk Assessment, Surveillance and Contract Tracing Risk assessment The WHO Country Office has been working closely with the Western Pacific Regional Office to develop a transmission stage assessment (TSA) framework and tool to regularly evaluate the level of transmission of Covid-19 at the local, regional, and national levels: Stage 0: no cases; Stage 1: imported case(s); Stage 2: localized community transmission; Stage 3: large-scale community transmission. The assessment is currently being aligned with the DOH risk classification system for local government units (LGUs) to include various indicators such as notification rates, testing rates and severity of infections. This joint assessment has been recommended to DOH to guide response measures on the appropriate level of community quarantine that should be adopted by local chief executives (i.e. governors, mayors) at the provincial, city or municipality level. Further discussions with the Epidemiology Bureau are planned to discuss this joint risk assessment that will adopt the TSA according to the current context of risk classification. Surveillance Due to the increase in hospital admissions for Covid-19 as a result of the surge of cases since late February, WHO PHL has started to regularly update the analysis on health care utilization bi-weekly to determine the red line of the upper limit of hospital bed capacity through the total bed utilization rate and the ICU bed utilization rate. The resulting analyses is discussed during the WCO IMT meeting and shared with DOH colleagues. Contact Tracing Contact Tracing and Management’s (CTM) focus is on the tracing speed, identification of sources of transmission, and strict enforcement of quarantine and isolation. The following are the target process indicators set for CTM [Source: CT Handbook for LGUs]: • 100% of cases interviewed with close contacts listed within 24 hours • 70% of close contacts of the cases traced within 24 hours from case interview • 100 % of close contacts quarantines and monitored appropriately during the quarantine period • Suspect cases isolated within 8-24 hours With the arrival of the vaccines, it is still imperative for the local health systems to strengthen the public health interventions especially the implementation contact tracing and management. CTM will remain to be a key public health measure, not just for the current COVID-19 response, but even for future health emergencies. We are in a critical juncture to establish a nationwide contact tracing system, as well as its implementation and quality assurance on national and sub-national levels. The focus on CTM now is on the integration of the ICT protocol or the interoperability of different systems and application on CTM. A rapid review of the ICT integration protocol for contact tracing has been provided to Usec Vergeire of DOH and Usec Florece of DILG, as requested. Coordination with Regional Director Balboa of DOH-CHDMM has been undertaken regarding the priorities in the COVID-19 response in the region, with focus on issues and recommendations on contact tracing systems. Coordination with the Baguio City Health Department to assess the contact tracing process and analysis is being done to document good practices in the hope of replicating to other LGUs. 3 Philippines Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report #74 1212 April 2021 Data reported by the Department of Health on 12 April 2021 Risk Communication and Community Engagement The WHO Country Office in the Philippines conducted a workshop on social listening and rumour management on 6 April 2021.