It is "premature" to say that the Philippines has reached the peak of its COVID-19 surge this year after reporting a slight decrease in its daily case tally, Health Sec. Francisco Duque III said Wednesday.
The Philippines on Tuesday reported 28,007 new virus infections, lower than the all-time high of 33,169 new cases on Monday. Tuesday's case tally was the first since Jan. 3 that the country saw a decline in new infections.
"This is not an indication that the peak is over. We might still be in the acceleration phase of our surge but of course, we pray, we are doing our best to hopefully contain this at the soonest possible time," Duque said in the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.
Duque reminded the public that Tuesday's case tally is usually lower since these are results from Sunday's testing output when most laboratories are usually closed.
"I cannot say for now whether it's the beginning of a downtrend," he said.
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Earlier, the Department of Health warned that the renewed COVID-19 surge could peak by end-January due to the hyper-contagious Omicron coronavirus variant.
The Philippines has been seeing a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases driven by the hyper-contagious Omicron coronavirus variant since the start of the year prompting households to stock up on common flu and fever medicines.
On Tuesday, the Philippines crossed the 3 million mark in total COVID-19 cases on the third year of the pandemic.Â
