OCTA: Philippines’ COVID-19 positivity rate at 4%; reproduction number at 0.42

The Philippines has recorded a COVID-19 positivity rate of 4%, still meeting the benchmark of the World Health Organization, according to independent monitoring group OCTA Research.

However, this is slightly higher than the 3.2% positivity rate recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday as it reported 849 new infections that day.

This is the lowest number of daily infections recorded since December 28, 2020.

“‘Yung overall positivity rate natin sa buong bansa ay 4% na lang, sa NCR nasa 3%, so ibig sabihin sapat ‘yung testing natin sa ngayon at patuloy na nakikita natin bumababa ‘yung numbers,” OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David said in an interview on G TV’s Balitanghali.

(The overall positivity rate is at 4%, in NCR it’s at 3%, so this means that testing is sufficient. And we can see that the numbers are continuously going down.)

According to OCTA, the 7-day average in the country also decreased to 1,809 from 2,005 for a one-week growth rate of -10%.

Meanwhile, the reproduction number was recorded at 0.42.

The reproduction rate refers to the number of people infected by one case. A reproduction number that is below 1 indicates that the transmission of the virus is slowing down.

“We must continue to follow minimum public health standards so cases will decrease further,” David said.

David reiterated that cases may go down to 500 by December based on the trends.

According to David, cases in other countries may have spiked due to a change in season, the removal of the face mask mandate, and the waning vaccine protection.

“Since sumusunod tayo sa face mask... palagay natin hindi naman tayo magkakaroon ng sitwasyon katulad ng sa Europa (since we are following the face mask... I don't think we will enter a similar situation),” he said.

He stressed that the face mask requirement must not be lifted in public areas. — RSJ, GMA News