Octa Research sees 5,000 daily COVID-19 cases by late February

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s daily COVID-19 cases may decrease to around 5,000 by late February, a fellow of independent analytics group Octa Research said Tuesday.

Octa Research fellow Guido David said that they project daily cases to decline to less than 10,000 by mid-February before further dropping to around 5,000 by late February.

“‘Yung projections mid- to late-February ayun nga sa buong Philippines ang pino-project natin bababa na to less than 10,000,” David said during the Laging Handa briefing.

(Our projections for mid-to-late-February for the entire Philippines are lower than 10,000.)

“In fact, by late February, I’m expecting baka malapit na sa mga 5,000 cases per day na lang. Nakita naman natin na mabilis bumagsak ‘yung bilang ng kaso gaya ng sa South Africa at Metro Manila,” he continued.

(In fact, by late February, I’m expecting maybe more or less 5,000 cases per day only. We saw the fast drop in cases like in South Africa and Metro Manila.)

Since January 5, the country has been recording over 10,000 cases amid the threat of the more infectious Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

READ: Omicron subvariant BA.2 more infectious than ‘original’ – Danish study

The Philippines posted its all-time high daily COVID-19 cases at 39,004 on January 15.

READ: Another all-time high: PH records 39,004 new COVID-19 cases

The latest fresh COVID-19 infections were 14,546, driving the overall case count to 3,560,202 on January 31.

READ: PH logs 14,546 new COVID-19 cases, 26,500 latest recoveries

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier said that COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila have already peaked and are already decreasing.

READ: COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila already peaked, says Duque