​Delta watch 5 (A new experiment)

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 06 Sep 2021 by Romeo Bernardo

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Even with daily infections on a worrisome uptrend, government today decided to ease restrictions in Metro Manila, lowering the quarantine status from modified enhanced community quarantine (mECQ) to general community quarantine (GCQ) beginning Wednesday. The decision follows a policy of relying more on local government interventions to control the spread of the virus rather than resort to blunt lockdowns over wide territories. Considering its wider vaccination coverage (75% vaccinated of which 43% has received the 2nd dose), Metro Manila was chosen to pilot this granular lockdown strategy.Government is expected to announce operational details of the granular lockdown tomorrow. The pilot study, which will run until the end of the month, will essentially test how well immunization in the nation’s capital so far protects against severe illness which in turn prevents overwhelming health resources that leads to lockdowns. As it stands, ICU utilization in the nation’s capital is at critical levels (over 70%) with new cases breaching 5k yesterday, the highest since April. Per the latest biosurveillance report, the Delta variant accounted for 76% of 367 sequenced samples last week.CHART 1.Daily cases, PH and NCR (7d ave)Source: DOHTABLE 1.DOH biosurveillance reportSource: DOHCHART 2.Daily vaccination progress (in thousand doses)Source: Our World in DataTABLE 2.Vaccine supply and pipeline (in million doses)Source: NTF Against COVID-19, Nomura