The alert level in the National Capital Region may be downgraded by the middle of February if COVID-19 cases continue going down, OCTA Research Fellow Guido David said on Monday.

David said it is still premature to declare the National Capital Region under Alert Level 2 in the first week of February.

"Personally I see that if we are still at 2,000 cases per day by the first week of February, maybe it is still premature to downgrade to Alert Level 2. Maybe by mid-February is the earliest that we can seriously consider downgrading into Alert Level 2 especially because of the decreasing number of cases," he said.

"The decrease in the number of cases is fast but we do not want to return to a situation where there will be another resurgence and the cases will go up again. It is much better for us to make sure that the number of cases are already downgraded like what we saw last October to November to December, before we lighten the restriction," he added.

David said although the cases in NCR and in its nearby regions are declining, the Omicron wave in the country may still last until the next two to three months.

"The Omicron wave will last quite longer because although the cases in NCR, Cavite, and Rizal are decreasing, the cases in others are just starting to increase while there are areas that do not yet have an increase," he said.

"We're hoping that by around March to April the Omicron wave in the whole country is already finished which means we may see less than 1,000 cases per day. But that is not guaranteed yet," he added. Robina Asido/DMS