The University of the Philippines OCTA Research team said the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines has been decreasing.
According to the team’s report dated October 6 and forwarded to GMA News, the reproduction number has maintained its downward trend.
“The number of cases in the Philippines has been decreasing, and currently at less around 2,500 new cases per day (based on case reports),” the OCTA Research team said.
This number is lower than the almost 4,000 new COVID-19 cases recorded daily during the last week of August.
“The reproduction number in the Philippines is 0.87, in line with the downward trend in test reports,” it added. A reproduction number below 1 means a flattened curve, according to the UP OCTA team.
For the National Capital Region, the researcher also said the number of its COVID-19 cases also decreased to less than 1,000 new infections per day.
The reproduction number in NCR remained below 1 at 0.82 during the same period.
The positivity rate for the capital region decreased now to 8% from 14% recorded during the end of August. However, this is still above the World Health Organization (WHO) ideal rate of 5%, the team noted.
“Based on available data, the value of R for the entire Philippines and in the NCR has been on a decelerating trend,” the experts said.
However, the research team noted that these positive trends are not irreversible. They advised the government, the public, and concerned sectors to maintain their COVID-19 efforts to sustain the downtrend.
COVID-19 infections in Philippines decreasing – UP experts
“We believe that the strict and universal compliance with minimum health standards can lower COVID-19 transmissions in country,” the team said.
The UP OCTA Research team also recommended the following areas to be placed under stricter community quarantine category:
- Benguet (including Baguio City)
- Davao Del Sur (including Davao City),
- Iloilo (including Iloilo City)
- Misamis Oriental (including Cagayan de Oro)
- Nueva Ecija
- Quezon
- Pangasinan (including Dagupan)
- Western Samar
- Zamboanga Del Sur (including Zamboanga City)
As of October 7, 2020, the Department of Health reported the total number of COVID-19 cases at 329,637. Of the confirmed cases, 49,989 (15.2%) are active cases, 273,723 (83.0%) have recovered and 5,925 (1.8%) have died.