Covid watch (3)

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 19 Mar 2021 by Romeo Bernardo

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Covid19 cases jumped again this week, with the case count reaching a record high of 7,103 today and the national weekly average rising by over 50%. The alert level is particularly high in Metro Manila which accounts for about half of the new cases and where hospital bed occupancy has been creeping up, with ICU beds nearing 70% occupancy (“high risk” category) as of March 17. Government has reportedly directed hospitals to allocate more beds for covid19 cases.Restrictions in the nation’s capital are expanding beyond the curfew imposed at the start of the week, with mayors placing more areas under “granular” lockdowns and allowing only those aged 18-65 to go out. Likewise, the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) suspended temporarily inbound travel for foreign nationals (with exceptions) covering the period March 21 to April 21 and closed for the two weeks to Easter[1] certain non-essential industries that were only recently reopened (e.g., cinemas, arcades, museums) while reducing venue capacity for religious and essential business gatherings from 50% to 30%.To protect more healthcare workers, the President has decided to use the more than half a million AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccines from Covax as first-dose vaccination in areas with high transmission, counting on the arrival of more doses later this month for full vaccination. So far, close to 300k vaccine doses (AZ and Sinovac) out of over a million deployed have been administered nationwide.The current surge has been traced to the presence of new variants of the coronavirus as well as to increased mobility and relaxation in health protocols. Tightened restrictions represent an...