DOH warns of COVID surge in May if health protocols ignored

The Department of Health (DOH) warned that the Philippines may experience another surge in COVID-19 infections by mid-May if minimum public health standards are ignored.

A 50% decrease in compliance with MPHS in Metro Manila could result in up to 60,000 new cases per day next month, leading to almost half a million active cases - more than three times higher than during the Omicron wave’s peak.

DOH cited the Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered with Vaccination and Reinfection (SVEIR) model used by the sub-Technical Working Group on Data Analytics (sTWG DA) and the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-temporal Epidemiological Modeler for Early Detection of Diseases (FASSSTER) Team.