Health expert warns of COVID-19 ‘rebound’ amid NCR’s premature easing to Alert Level 3

CNN – Published Oct 15, 2021 10:29:42 AM

Metro Manila — The National Capital Region could experience a “rebound” of COVID-19 cases once it shifts from Alert Level 4 to level 3 this weekend, health reform advocate Dr. Tony Leachon said on Friday.

He said Metro Manila is not yet ready to ease quarantine restrictions and increase business capacity due to high positivity rate.

Although the positivity rate in the capital region has gone down from 29% to 14%, it is still far from the below 5% set by the World Health Organization.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority reported that NCR has vaccinated 78% of its eligible population, but it is far from the 90% needed to achieve herd immunity.

“We need to put the positivity rate below 5% and increase vaccination rate to at least 70%. That’s the time we can open our economy or else we’ll have trouble in terms of having a rebound in the next few weeks,” Leachon told CNN Philippines.

He also said the government has to identify which locality still has a high positivity rate, so more tests can be conducted in this area.

Metro Manila will shift to a more relaxed alert level status from Oct. 16 to 31 after a steady decline in new cases.

SOURCE: https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2021/10/15/Leachon-Metro-Manila-Alert-Level-3-COVID-19.html?????