Metro Manila COVID cases continue to rise — OCTA
STILL NO END IN SIGHT Health workers report for duty at Manila COVID-19 Field Hospital at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila. —RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines — The positivity rate or the number of individuals currently ill with COVID-19 out of samples tested in Metro Manila continued to climb this week, according to the latest monitoring of OCTA Research, even as it noted that this uptrend would likely be sustained in the coming weeks.
According to Guido David, an OCTA Research fellow, the capital region saw its positivity rate jump to 17.5 percent on Wednesday from 14.3 percent a week ago. This was the highest figure recorded since it reached almost 18 percent in mid-August.
The seven-day average of new COVID-19 infections also rose by 28 percent to 1,128 this week, which is equivalent to a “moderate” average daily attack rate of 7.83 per 100,000 individuals, David said.
2,000 cases per day in NCR
“It looks like the NCR (National Capital Region) will exceed 2,000 cases per day in October,” David said in a Twitter post.
Daily infections in the region in recent days stood at around 1,000, with the latest count on Thursday at 1,315. The number accounts for nearly half of the total new cases on the same day.
The reproduction number, which gauges the virus’ capacity to infect, inched up to 1.26 from 1.19. OCTA had said that a reproduction number below 1 indicates infections are heading downwards.
The “good news,” David noted, was that the health-care utilization rate for COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila remained low at 38 percent.
Based on the latest data from the COVID-19 tracker of the Department of Health (DOH), the country’s total caseload is now near the 4 million mark at 3,929,819 as of Thursday. The death toll, however, stood at 62,695.
The DOH will launch on Monday its weeklong special vaccination drive to be able to reach at least 30 percent of its first booster targets within the first 100 days of the Marcos administration or by Oct. 8. Nationwide coverage for first boosters remained low at around 12 percent, as of Sept. 20.
