Researchers from the University of the Philippines said Tuesday Metro Manila is now flattening the COVID-19 curve six months after the pandemic hits the country.
“The R for the Philippines is .92, and the R for (National Capital Region) is .83. These numbers are below 1, which is good,” Professor Ranjit Rye of the UP-OCTA Research team told reporters.
Rye added that the NCR needed to sustain the downtrend of infections for “few more weeks” before the authorities could consider placing the capital region under less stringent community quarantine status.
“We caution [the government] with regards to prematurely downgrading the quarantine status of the NCR. This decision should only be made if there is supporting data and only on the advice of health experts,” he said.
According to the research of UP-OCTA, the positivity rate in the country is still at 10.4 percent, which is double the World Health Organization’s benchmark of five percent or lower.
“Case doubling rate is 11 days, which is faring better but still below the (Inter-Agency Task Force) rate of 28 days for (modified general community quarantine,)” Rye said.
Metro Manila would be under general community quarantine until September 30.
As of September 22, the NCR logged 25 239 active cases of COVID-19 with 127, 536 recoveries, and 2,481 deaths.
Metro Manila flattening COVID-19 curve
Meanwhile, the Philippines recorded 56,097 active cases, 230, 643 recoveries, and 5,049 fatalities.
“Moreover, 17 cases previously reported as recovered were reclassified as death (1) and active (16) cases,” the DOH said.
Metro Manila still logged the highest number of new infections at 583, followed by Cavite with 102, Iloilo with 97, Rizal with 67, and Cebu with 57.
Eighty-eight percent or 1,435 of the newly reported cases caught COVID-19 in the past 14 days.
The DOH said nine laboratories failed to submit their data on time.
A total of 56,097 are active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, 86.4 percent of which are mild, 9.2 percent are asymptomatic, 1.3 percent are severe, and 3.1 percent are in critical condition.
DOH earlier said the public should expect an “irregularly high number” of COVID-19 cases in the coming days as laboratories nationwide submit complete data.
DOH earlier required the laboratories to have the patient’s addresses and contact numbers to the information they submit to DOH’s database.