11 LGUs in NCR register less than 10 new COVID-19 cases

MANILA, Philippines — Eleven local government units (LGUs) in the National Capital Region (NCR) recorded less than 10 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the OCTA Research Group reported.

Citing data from the Department of Health (DOH), OCTA fellow Guido David said Navotas City had no new case, while 10 other areas had less than 10 cases.

These include Pasig and Taguig cities with eight each, Muntinlupa and Valenzuela cities with four each, Las Piñas and Malabon cities with three each, Marikina and San Juan cities with two each and Mandaluyong City and Pateros with one each.

Among the other cities, Manila had the most number of new cases at 28, followed by Quezon City with 20, Caloocan, Makati and Pasay with 11 each and Parañaque with 10.

The entire Metro Manila recorded a total of 128 new cases on Friday.

In a separate report on Thursday, David said Quezon City is now “very low risk” for COVID-19 following the continued decline in new cases over the past week.

He said the city has averaged 25 new cases per day from March 10 to 16, down 22 percent from the preceding week.

During this period, Quezon City recorded an average daily attack rate (ADAR) of just 0.79 per 100,000 people and a reproduction number of 0.23.

He added that the number of new cases in the city represents on average 16 percent of the total new cases in the capital region.

“This projects to a seven-day average of around 154 cases in the NCR. This would mean that NCR remains at ‘low risk,’ although it should be very close to moving to ‘very low risk’ once the ADAR decreases below 1.0,” David said.

At the time, he said NCR’s ADAR was at 1.09 daily new infections per 100,000 people.

The OCTA fellow noted that it is difficult to make projections after the DOH stopped releasing regular updates.

“It is not clear if cases are leveling off or if there will be a change in the direction,” he added, referring to the overall new cases in the country, which was at 545 on Friday.