The country may have as many as 300,000 active COVID-19 cases by next month should the public set aside the minimum public health standards that were implemented in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, warned the World Health Organization (WHO) representative earlier today, April 18, Monday.
In a statement made by WHO Acting Representative to Asia, Dr. Rajendra Yadav, in a Laging Handa briefing held earlier, the non-compliance of some Filipinos with regard to the COVID-19 safety precautions may result to 300,000 positive cases next month.
“I have seen those numbers. We have to prove those numbers wrong. That’s the challenge we face. If we relax our guards, if we relax our defenses, yes it’s possible to get to those numbers,” he said.
Aside from WHOs warning to the public, it could also be recalled that the Department of Health (DOH) has also warned about the possible surge in COVID-19 cases after the May elections, which is likely to surpass the recorded infections during the Omicron variant spike in January 2022.
Furthermore, Yadav said that the government should not only rely on the number of cases but should also focus more on re-focusing to increase the vaccination rate in the country.
As of today, there are already 66,854,770 fully-vaccinated individuals, with about 12,641,887 individuals also being inoculated from the COVID-19 booster shots here in the Philippines.