OCTA flags increase in COVID-19 reproduction rate in Metro Manila
MANILA, Philippines — OCTA Research on Wednesday said it has observed an increase in the reproduction rate of the novel coronavirus in Metro Manila over the past week.
The independent panel of experts said the figure — or the number of persons a positive individual can infect — is now at 0.68 from last week's 0.57.
NCR also saw a slight increase of 8% in its seven-day average of additional infections. Its daily average attack rate, meanwhile, stood at 8.22 per 100,000 population, putting it still under "moderate risk."
OCTA said the capital region's health care utilization rate is at 41%, while its ICU occupancy is at 53%, both of which experts added are still within the safe level of 60%.
Metro Manila was retained under General Community Quarantine until mid-June along with the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Bulacan known as the "NCR Plus" bubble.
A health official said this week that while cases in these areas continue to be on the decline, the rate of which it is going has slowed down.
Experts said that the reproduction rate for the entire country also urged to 1.09, while its seven-day average was up by 37% or 6,699.
"The cause for this reversal in the downward trend," OCTA continued, "is that the NCR Plus did not see a decrease in cases the past week that would counter the upward trends seen in many provinces and LGUs outside the NCR Plus bubble."
They noted too that within the quarantine bubble, where some restrictions have been eased, Antipolo in Rizal and Santa Rosa in Laguna also saw significant increases in new infections.
Beyond NCR Plus, OCTA said areas of concern are Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo City, Tuguegarao, General Santos, Butuan, Batangas City and Tarlac City where an upward trend in cases was recorded in the last week.
The Philippines continues to battle an ongoing surge in infections that began in March, along with increasing daily vaccinations.
On Wednesday, health authorities said 5,257 more Filipinos contracted the COVID-19, pushing the total to 1.24 million.
Deaths have since reached over 21,000, while recoveries have climbed to 1.17 million.
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