OCTA flags Davao City, 5 localities as areas of concern over COVID-19 trend

The OCTA Research group on Friday flagged the cities of Davao, Iloilo, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Baguio, and Tagum as areas of concern due to their upward COVID-19 trends.

The independent team of experts follows a risk classification system developed by the COVID Act Now coalition that uses four indicators: reproduction number, average daily attack rate (ADAR), ICU occupancy rate, and positivity rate.

While Davao City logged a case growth rate of -26%, it still had the highest average number of daily new cases with around 241 infections recorded per day from July 2 to 8.

Davao’s reproduction number also stood at 1, indicating a sustained COVID-19 transmission, while its ADAR was high at 13.26 cases per 100,000 population and its positivity rate was at 15%, above the World Health Organization’s threshold of 5%.

The ICU utilization rate was also classified “very high” in Davao City at 95% and in Iloilo City at 94%, “high” in Cagayan de Oro at 83%, “moderate” in General Santos City and Baguio City at 73%, as well as in Tagum at 79%.

The positivity rate was in the red in General Santos City at 30%, in Tagum at 21%, and in Butuan at 22%, though it was not flagged as an area of concern.

Meanwhile, OCTA said Metro Manila averaged 636 new infections daily from July 2 to 8, 7% lower than the week before, “which means the NCR is back on a slight downward trend after a slight uptick the past week.”

The capital region registered a reproduction number of 0.85, ADAR of 4.61 cases per 100,000 population, ICU occupancy rate of 43%, and positivity rate of 6%.

The average number of daily new cases also fell by 7% across the country to 5,321 infections from July 2 to 8.

The Philippines has logged over 1.46 million cases with 1.38 million recoveries and 25,720 deaths as of Friday afternoon.

The Philippines has vaccinated over 9.4 million individuals or 13.4% of its target 70 million population for COVID-19 jabs as of July 8.  — DVM, GMA News