An official of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Western Pacific region advised Filipinos to still practice precautionary measures against COVID-19 as holiday festivities draw closer.
Dr. Babatunde Olowokure, regional emergency director of WHO-Western Pacific, told a press conference on Friday that COVID-19 cases have remained low in the region, including the Philippines, which he said was 鈥渁 good thing鈥� as Filipinos still observe safety measures.
鈥淲e are in the 鈥榖er鈥� months, and so traditionally we would see an increase in cases of respiratory infections鈥� Currently, when we look at COVID-19 [cases] across the region, what we see is a reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases,鈥� noted Olowokure.
He added, 鈥渁nd so that鈥檚 what we are seeing. We鈥檝e not noticed a significant increase in cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines [as well].鈥�
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Based on the weekly COVID-19 case bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH), new cases slightly increased by 2.7 percent to 1,264 from Oct. 2 to Oct. 8, or an average of 181 cases per day.
On Friday, 164 new infections were recorded, pushing the country鈥檚 total case tally to 4,117,183, data from the DOH showed.