DAILY coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the country may climb to 9,000 by the end of September, according to the Department of Health (DOH), with schools already resuming face-to-face classes.In a press conference, DOH Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday, August 26, 2022, said their updated projection shows that cases may increase from the current over 3,000 daily cases being reported.”Currently, the daily average cases nationally is 3,231. This is 14-percent lower than the previous week when the average nationally was 3,755,” said Vergeire.”Based on our projections, which were already updated because of the opening of classes, we may increase up to 9,000 cases daily nationwide by the end of September until October,” she furthered.She said this is because of the higher mobility seen currently with the opening of classes earlier in the week.”Now that classes have resumed, plus parents fetching their children, the mobility pattern really went up. With that, we agree that the probability is there,” said Vergeire.She said the projection may be met if the public continues to become more mobile, coupled with less adherence to minimum public health standards, and low vaccination and booster coverage.”These are projections. It could happen, or it may not. It will depend on whether our assumptions will be met,” said Vergeire.Current trendVergeire said Covid-19 cases in the country, as well as in the National Capital Region (NCR), are currently on a decline.”The daily decline is being sustained. The national trend and in the NCR are the same,” she said.Broken down into island groups, the health official said only Mindanao is still seeing increasing numbers.”Mindanao is showing an increase in cases. Visayas is on a plateau. The rest of the country shows downward trend,” said Vergeire.Similarly, she said the number of severe and critical cases is already on a plateau compared to the slow surge seen in the previous week.”Although we previously observed slight increase, it is plateauing right now. And even if we saw an increase, it did not exceed the 1,000-threshold. We can see that it is still less than 10 percent of admitted cases,” said Vergeire.VariantsThe DOH also reported on Friday the detection of over 100 additional Omicron subvariant cases in the country.These included additional 139 BA.5 cases, six BA.4 cases and one BA.2.12.1 case detected during the latest genome sequencing.The new BA.5 cases were detected in all regions except in the Caraga.As for the BA.4 cases, the DOH said these were detected in Bicol Region (3), Soccsksargen (2) and Davao Region (1).The lone additional BA.2.12.1 case was found in the Ilocos Region. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)