The active cases in the country could reach as high as 7,500 by the second half of next month, the Department of Health (DoH) said.,In an interview on Friday, 24 June, Health Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the projected figure was based on the assumptions that there will be a decline in the public’s compliance with minimum public health standards, and low uptake in Covid-19 booster shots.,“What’s troubling here would be, based on the projections, this could happen around the second to the third week of July,” Vergeire told Teleradyo.,“We are seeing an increase in hospital admissions because of the waning immunity of the Covid-19 vaccine,” she added.,The statement came after Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said there will be no massive surge in the number of Covid-19 cases for now, but warned that cases in Metro Manila may increase up to 2,000 next month.,Metro Manila, home to some 13 million Filipinos is under the most lenient Alert Level 1 classification until 30 June.,Despite the expected increase in the number of cases in the capital region, he expressed confidence that the country will be able to surpass it.,“We’re more agile now. We are more ready. We can manage this,” he said.,“The virus will stay, it will remain. So we just have to manage this so the cases and the transmission are low, not enough to overwhelm and overstretch our healthcare system capacity,” he added.