OCTA: Davao City surpasses Quezon City on new COVID-19 cases

TREATMENT CENTER A man rests outside Southern Philippines Medical Center, the main COVID-19 referral hospital in the Davao Region. —KARLOS MANLUPIG

MANILA, Philippines — Davao City has surpassed Quezon City on the average number of new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days, according to data from the OCTA Research released on Tuesday.

Based on a monitoring report from the research group, Davao City recorded 213 average new cases from June 1 to 7, or 44 percent from the 147 average new cases from the preceding week.

Meanwhile, Quezon City recorded an average of 207 new COVID-19 cases from June 1 to 7, or a -27 percent growth rate from the 283 cases from the previous week.

Davao City was placed under modified enhanced community quarantine starting June 5 until June 20, after the local government unit (LGU) appealed to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to declare the city under a stricter quarantine status so it could deal with the surge of COVID-19 cases.

Following Davao and Quezon City on the LGUs with most new cases from the June 1 to 7 were Cagayan de Oro with 118 average new cases, Bacolod with 112 average cases, Iloilo City with 111 cases, Manila with 102 cases, Parañaque with 80 cases, Pasig and Caloocan with 79 cases, and General Santos with 72 average cases.

OCTA Research said there are now 12 LGUs of concern due to rising new COVID-19 cases and high average daily attack rates, healthcare utilization rate, and ICU utilization rate.

These are Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, Iloilo City, General Santos, Tuguegarao, Butuan, Koronadal, Dumaguete, Cotabato City, Batangas City, and Roxas City.

The country has so far confirmed a total of 1.27 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 58,854 cases that remain active as of Monday.

JE