QC has most number of villages with high COVID-19 cases —OCTA Research

Quezon City has the most number of villages included in the OCTA Research’s list of barangays with highest COVID-19 cases in the “National Capital Region plus” as of March 24.

In its March 25 report, the OCTA Research group enumerated 52 barangays that belong to the top 50 villages with most number of COVID-19 cases.

Of the 52 barangays, Quezon City has 12 villages included in the list, followed by Parañaque City with nine barangays, and Makati City with seven.

Taguig City followed with six barangays included in the list, then Cainta, Pasig, and Mandaluyong with three barangays each.

The list also included two barangays each from Pasay City and Valenzuela City and one each from Muntinlupa, Marikina, Las Piñas, Antipolo, and Caloocan.

Barangay Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City topped the list of barangays with most number of COVID-19 cases at 342.

This was followed by Barangay 76 and Barangay 183 both in Pasay City with 309 and 251 cases, respectively.

Barangay Pio Del Pilar in Makati City landed on the fourth spot with 240 COVID-19 cases, followed by Barangay Commonwealth in Quezon City with 194, Batasan Hills in Quezon City with 180, San Antonio in Makati City with 173, B.F. Homes in Parañaque with 170, Holy Spirit in Quezon City with 168, and Culiat in Quezon City with 166 cases.

Recently, the Philippine government has placed NCR and nearby provinces— Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, and Rizal— under a bubble to mitigate the COVID-19 surge in the country especially in Metro Manila.

In the same OCTA report, researchers said the reproduction number was down to 1.91 from 1.99 as of Wednesday.

The reproduction number refers to the number of people that one COVID-19 case can infect.

However, OCTA said this number is not yet an indication of continuous decrease in the reproduction number in Metro Manila following the imposition of National Capital Region Plus Bubble.

The OCTA Research also reported that the average number of new COVID-19 cases in NCR is at 3,804 per day over the past week.

This was 61 percent higher compared to the previous week.

It also reported that the positivity rate in Metro Manila was 18% over the past seven days. The World Health Organization’s benchmark for positivity rates is 5%.

On Thursday afternoon, the Department of Health reported that the COVID-19 cases surged to 693,048 with an all-time high of 8,773 new infections.

The number of active cases in the country also rose to 99,891, the highest figure recorded this year.—AOL, GMA News