Davao City now at ‘very low risk’ for COVID-19 — OCTA Research

(FILE) IMPORTANT REMINDER A streamer at a pedestrian overpass in Davao City reminds residents to stay at home amid the rising cases of COVID-19 infection in the city. —KARLOS MANLUPIG

MANILA, Philippines — Davao City is now at very low-risk status for COVID-19, the OCTA Research group said Thursday, months after the southern city topped the list of local government units (LGUs) with the highest new coronavirus cases.

“We see Cebu City and Davao City as having very low risk at this time due to all indicators being green. Even their ADAR (average daily attack rate) is green,” OCTA Research Guido David said in an online media forum.

An indicator tagged as green is considered low risk by OCTA Research. The independent analytics group uses the indicators of covidactnow.org in classifying the risk levels in specific areas, which does not reflect the risk level ratings being used by the Department of Health.

Table from OCTA Research

Cebu City was already reported to be at low risk status for COVID-19 based on the previous report of OCTA.

“In Davao City, the Alpha, Beta surge came at a delayed time and right after that surge came the Delta surge so there were two successive surges in Davao City, so they were relatively at a good level before these two surges,” David added.

In June and July, Davao City topped the list of LGUs with the highest number of new COVID-19 cases. For instance, the city logged an average of 225 new COVID-19 cases from July 11 to July 17.

But according to OCTA’s data, Davao City’s average new cases from November 2 to 8 were only at 33, while the average daily attack rate is at 1.82 per 100,000 population.

The reproduction number of COVID-19 in the city is currently at 0.38, while healthcare utilization is at 32 percent, intensive care unit occupancy is at 59 percent, and the positivity rate is 5 percent.

/MUF