Amid continued increase of COVID-19 cases, the health care utilization rate in the Philippines is now at high risk, a palace official said on Tuesday.

"Our healthcare utilization rate, we are in high risk. That’s true, nationally and within Metro Manila but we are not yet critical. So we can still take care of our patients," Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a briefing on Tuesday.

Despite the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, Roque said by way of our projections the country is still "on track ".

"We are within projection for as long as we do not exceed 20,000 per day ‘no ? that is the projection. If you think that the ECQ will result in a drastic reduction in cases, that is not the projection," he said.

"The projection is we should not exceed 20,000. The number will not go down. That is the projection for the two weeks ECQ and the MECQ that we are implementing, So I would say we are on track," he added.

Roque said based on the data from the Department of Health COVID-19 cases recorded on August 23 has reached to 18,332.

Rontgen Solante, a vaccine expert panel member, said despite the increase of the COVID-19 cases, hospitals are still accommodating patients.

"So far the hospitals, especially the government hospitals are still accommodating patients and we are thriving despite this increase in the cases. And more or less we are really preparing for this. Now there are what we call flexibility in most of these hospitals where if the cases continue to increase, we will also increase the allocation of beds for the COVID," he said.

"At the same time, we also have to balance the available healthcare workers. This is why it is very important that we should be very careful at this time, especially for those vulnerable population," he added. Robina Asido/DMS