OCTA: Quezon City winning war vs COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City, the largest locality in Metro Manila in terms of land area and population, has registered less than 30 new cases of COVID-19 per day, according to OCTA Research Group.

Based on all indicators used by the Department of Health and covidactnow.org, a special report released yesterday showed how Quezon City is winning the war against the pandemic.

OCTA said the city headed by Mayor Joy Belmonte is considered a low risk area.

“Quezon City has achieved its target of less than 30 new COVID cases per day,” OCTA said, citing the city’s very low average daily attack rate (ADAR).

The average daily cases of COVID-19 in Quezon City dropped to 29 from Nov. 29 to Dec. 5, according to the report.

“This represents a one week growth rate of negative 41 percent from the previous week’s tally of 49 COVID cases. This is the lowest seven-day average in Quezon City since May,” the report read.

OCTA said the incidence rate or ADAR in Quezon City also dropped to 0.91 daily per 100,000 people, which is considered very low using the group’s matrix.

“The city’s reproduction number as of Dec. 2 was 0.32, which is considered very low,” the report said.

The positivity rate in Quezon City also decreased to 1.4 percent, which is likewise very low at an average of 3,200 RT-PCR tests done per day.

OCTA said Quezon City’s hospital bed occupancy and ICU utilization rates decreased to 35 percent and 45 percent, respectively.

“The challenge now for Quezon City is to sustain the low number of COVID cases through better pandemic management using bio-surveillance, testing, contact tracing, localized lockdowns and the cooperation of residents,” the research group said.

In a separate report, OCTA noted that Metro Manila’s overall COVID-19 situation has improved.

“The average number of COVID cases recorded in the National Capital Region in the past week was lower by 70 percent compared to the same period last year,” OCTA said.

The positivity rate in Metro Manila also dropped to 1.1 percent compared to 3.7 percent last year.