President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman on Thursday proposed a break for hospital frontliners against the coronavirus pandemic, as occupancy in hospitals eased.

About 50 percent of ward, isolation, and ICU beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients are currently occupied nationwide, said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.

"Siguro po puwede nating irekomenda sa mga ospital na habang nasa 50 percent lang po ang ating utilization rate ng ating health facilities baka pupuwedeng pagbakasyunin iyong ilang mga frontliners natin para sa ganoon ay makapagpahinga habang hindi pa po kritikal ang ating critical care capacity," he said in a press briefing.

(Perhaps we can recommend to hospitals that while the utilization rate of our health facilities is at 50 percent, we can let our frontliners take a vacation so they can rest while the critical care capacity is not critical.)

"Gagawin po natin po iyan (we will do that) and we will recommend that to our One Hospital Command," said National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr.

Active coronavirus infections have gone down to about 48,000 as of Thursday, according to the health department. A previous high of 88,000 active cases was tallied in Aug. 15, Galvez said.

• Tracking COVID-19 cases in the Philippines