Metro Manila may be 'Delta resilient' in 'a few months': OCTA Research

MANILA - Metro Manila might be resilient to the Delta COVID-19 variant in a few months following the full vaccination of its population, the OCTA Research Group said Wednesday.

Cities in the capital region have vaccinated "between 20 to 70 percent of their population" with one dose, said biology professor Fr. Nicanor Austriaco.

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"Which suggests that a month or a month and a half from now that would be fully vaccinated people. The data suggests that in a few months the NCR (National Capital Region) particularly maybe Delta resilient and this is good news for the country," he told ANC's Headstart.

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The Philippines has so far administered some 12 million coronavirus vaccine jabs, including 1 million doses in the past 4 days alone, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said Tuesday. 

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Austriaco, meantime, said the risk of COVID-19 infection to individuals is "not low enough to remove their masks."

"The numbers here based upon the metrics established by DOH (Department of Health) suggest that the risk to the health infrastructure is low, so it's not necessarily risk to the individual Filipino," he said.

"For the most part what the DOH is saying, if you look at numbers, the risk of a devastating surge to our health infrastructure is quite low."

The risk for COVID-19 infection "would drop significantly once the average daily attack rate falls below one," he added,

The World Health Organization earlier told the DOH to be "more cautious" after it proclaimed that the Philippines is now a low risk area for COVID-19.

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The Philippines has tallied 1,445,832 total coronavirus cases as of Tuesday, of which 49,613 or 3.4 percent were active infections and 25,296 were deaths.