VIRUS STILL HERE | Pedestrians, many of them wearing face masks, cross Kamuning Road in Quezon City. (File photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila is seeing a continued spike in COVID-19 infections, but still with low hospitalizations, as the seven-day positivity rate rose to 14.3 percent.
According to the latest monitoring by OCTA Research, the National Capital Region’s (NCR) weekly positivity rate, or the percentage of people confirmed to have COVID-19 from tests, jumped to 14.3 percent on Thursday from 9 percent a week ago.
The latest positivity rate is beyond the 5-percent benchmark recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Occupancy rate for allotted COVID-19 beds, however, was still considered “low risk” at 22 percent, OCTA fellow Guido David said.
‘Variant of interest’
COVID-19 cases nationwide have been on the rise in recent weeks amid the entry of new Omicron sublineages found to have a growth advantage.
Fresh COVID-19 cases climbed to 858 on Friday, bringing the country’s total active case count to 5,293, based on the COVID-19 tracker data of the Department of Health (DOH).
The DOH last week reported that XBB.1.16, a new Omicron sublineage said to be more transmissible but with a low level of risk, had been found in a resident of Iloilo province.
The health agency said that the infected individual had no symptoms and had already recovered.
Nicknamed “Arcturus,” after a red giant star, XBB.1.16 is a recombinant of BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75. It was elevated this month to “variant of interest” from “variant under monitoring” by the WHO.
Variant of interest is just a level just below the highest category of variant of concern.
Amid the uptrend in COVID-19 cases, DOH officer in charge Maria Rosario Vergeire advised infected individuals not to “self-medicate” during home quarantine not to run the risk of further harming one’s health.
Under existing policies, those fully vaccinated with mild symptoms need to be isolated for only seven days, while those unvaccinated or only has one primary dose need to be quarantined for 14 days.
Meanwhile, infectious diseases experts had strongly urged vulnerable individuals, such as the elderly and those with comorbidities, to keep their masks on, especially in high-risk areas to keep themselves protected from COVID-19 and other contagious diseases.