Coronavirus cases in capital region may be falling, says OCTA
CORONAVIRUS infections in Manila, the capital and nearby cities have been decreasing, according to researchers from the country’s premier university.
The growth rate of daily coronavirus infections in Metro Manila dropped to 1% on Jan. 16 from 2% a day earlier, OCTA Research Group fellow Fredegusto P. David tweeted on Monday.
“The growth rate over the past four days, in order, were 11%, 5%, 3%, and 2%,” he said in a bulletin posted on Twitter.
He said the virus reproduction number in the capital region had decreased to 2.67 from a peak of 6.16 11 days ago, while its positivity rate had dropped to 50% from 54%.
“While this trend is encouraging, suggesting the possibility that cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) have peaked, the possibility still remains that visibility of the situation in the NCR is clouded because of limitations in testing,” Mr. David said.
“We need to monitor trends in the NCR over the coming week to see if cases decrease further.”
The Department of Health (DoH) posted 37,070 coronavirus infections on Monday, bringing the total to 3.24 million.
The death toll increased by 23 to 52,929, while recoveries rose by 33,940 to 2.9 million, it said in a bulletin.
The agency said 46% of 77,410 samples on Jan. 15 tested positive for COVID-19, way above the 5% threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
There were 290,938 active cases, 9,187 of which did not show symptoms, 277,020 were mild, 2,947 were moderate, 1,480 severe and 304 were critical.
DoH said 97% of the cases occurred from Jan. 4 to Jan. 17. The top regions with new cases in the past two weeks were Metro Manila with 13,061, Calabarzon with 9,048 and Central Luzon with 4,173 infections. It added that 87% of deaths occurred in January.
It said 94 duplicates had been removed from the tally, 64 of which were reclassified as recoveries and one was tagged as a death. Two recoveries were relisted as deaths. Twelve laboratories failed to submit data on Jan. 15.
The agency said 49% of intensive care unit beds in the country had been used, while the rate for Metro Manila was 58%. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
