The Philippines’ COVID-19 positivity rate continues to decline, based on the latest data from the Department of Health (DOH).
The country recorded a 3.5 percent positivity rate on Nov. 15, according to the DOH.
The positivity rate is the percentage of those who test positive from the total number of testers recorded in an area. It measures the contamination level of COVID-19.
Based on World Health Organization guidelines, if a country can maintain its positivity rate below 5 percent for two weeks, the pandemic in the area can be said to be “under control.”
According to the ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team, 3.5 percent is the third-lowest positivity rate recorded since the DOH began releasing testing data in April last year.
The Philippine intensive care unit (ICU) utilization rate remains in the safe zone, at only 33 percent.
But notably, Catanduanes is the only province in the country on Alert Level 4, the second-highest in the 5-step alert level system that sets COVID-19 restrictions.
The province was previously under modified enhanced community quarantine.
But according to Catanduanes Governor Joseph Cua, the province’s high ICU utilization rate is the reason why it is under Alert Level 4.
“Limited ang referral hospital na nasa Catanduanes, isang provincial hospital at 2 maliit na private. Sa ngayon, we have 82 percent utilization ng hospital,” said Cua.
The province’s COVID-19 vaccination rate is also low.
Today, more than 65,000 or 24 percent of the population of Catanduanes is fully vaccinated.
PH continues to record low COVID-19 positivity rate
According to Cua, they have also asked for more vaccines.
According to DOH’s COVID-19 data in the National Capital Region, Quezon City leads 90 new cases. Manila followed with 62 new cases.
But Dr. Rolly Cruz, head of the epidemiology unit of Quezon City, denied this and said that backlog cases include 90.
OCTA Research is confident in the data released by the DOH.
OCTA also reminded that minimum health standards still need to be maintained to prevent the country from imitating the visible surge of cases in some countries in Europe.
As of Thursday, the Philippines recorded 1,297 new COVID-19 cases for a total of 2,821,753, of which 23,158 were active cases.
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