INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
The country’s daily COVID-19 caseload, which is now close to 3,000, has been on an upswing for two straight days on Thursday after a slow decline last week.
According to the latest data from the Department of Health (DOH) COVID-19 tracker, new cases stood at 2,828, the highest recorded since Feb. 13. This brought active infections to 22,207 and total case tally to 3,741,987.
The pace of transmission in the last two days is slowly gaining upward momentum again after it supposedly hit a “peak” on July 15 with 2,588 new infections. It went on a downtrend for four straight days since then, before it climbed again on Wednesday.
In Metro Manila, where a large chunk of new cases are recorded in the country, positivity rates are rising again, independent pandemic monitor OCTA Research said on Friday.
Reversal of trends
After reaching a high of 14 percent on July 15, the positivity rate in the capital region slowly dipped in the following days before climbing again and reaching a new high of 14.6 percent on July 20.
But OCTA said it was unsure on what was causing the reversal of trends.
“It is not clear what is driving this change in trends. It is also not clear at this time when the peak will be reached in the [National Capital Region],” it noted.
The research group reminded the public to remain vigilant amid increasing cases and relaxed mobility restrictions.
“Cases are now rising in many parts of the country. The new subvariants are immune evasive. We strongly advise the public to observe caution,” it added.
Maria Rosario Vergeire, undersecretary and officer in charge of the DOH, had emphasized that the current formulation of vaccines in the country’s inventory provide sufficient protection against the new Omicron sublineages.
Majority of the samples from the latest genome sequencing run results this week showed that they were of the BA.5 subvariant, with 816 new cases.
Most of the BA.5 cases were from Western Visayas (309), followed by Metro Manila (145) and Calabarzon (106).