Cases still down, but PH fails to keep ideal positivity rate
MANILA, Philippines — The country failed to keep its COVID-19 test positivity rate within the World Health Organization’s (WHO) prescribed level of below 5 percent.
The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday reported that the positivity rate, or the number of people found infected out of those tested, rose to 5.5 percent. This was after staying within the WHO benchmark in the previous two days.
According to the DOH, 2,397 individuals were found infected out of the 43,591 tested for COVID-19.
WHO set an ideal positivity rate of below 5 percent for 14 days, the maximum incubation period, as an indicator of an area’s control over COVID-19.
On Wednesday, the positivity rate was at 4.3 percent, the first time in nearly 10 months that it was within the WHO recommendation. On Thursday, the rate was recorded at 4.9 percent.
New daily cases, meanwhile, continued to decline for the second straight day to 1,894, bringing the total number of cases to 2,738,975.
170 more deaths
Active cases, or those currently sick with the virus, slightly increased to 29,105. The majority of those infected had mild symptoms (63 percent). The rest were moderate (16.7 percent), severe (10.2 percent), asymptomatic (5.7 percent) and critical (4.4 percent).
There were 1,421 new recoveries, raising the total number of survivors to 2,738,975.
The death count breached the 45,000-mark after 170 more deaths were registered.
Earlier, independent pandemic monitor OCTA Research called on the government to ramp up vaccination, testing and contact tracing efforts outside Metro Manila.
It said the vaccination rate in the country remained low.
Based on the Nov. 10 data from the national COVID-19 dashboard, 30.5 million Filipinos had been fully vaccinated, accounting for only 36.5 percent of the eligible population, while 36.3 million had received their first jab.
