OCTA: Daily new cases in NCR might exceed 6K to 8K in January

The number of new cases daily in Metro Manila in January might exceed the 6,000 to 8,000 registered during the surge caused by the Delta variant, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said on Friday.

"Tandaan natin na yung pinakamataas natin noon umabot tayo ng 6,000 to 8,000 cases sa Metro Manila noong peak ng Delta surge. Maaring mahigitan natin yan ngayon," David said on Super Radyo dzBB.

"Unfortunate pero yan yung nakikita nating trajectory mukhang makikita natin 'yan this January na ganyan karaming bilang ng kaso," he added.

On Lei Alviz's report on "24 Oras", David said the Philippines might welcome the 2022 with 3,500 to 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on New Year's Day.

“It is exponentially increasing, so it’s increasing at a very fast rate. Something we haven’t seen. I mean we may have seen it only on the early part of the pandemic,” David said.

“There could be several factors, ‘yung holiday factor, of course. There’s already a possibility that the Omicron may be spreading already. We’re not saying that it is spreading. We’re waiting for genome confirmation,” he added.

Of the 3,500 to 4,000 cases projected on January 1, David said 3,000 may be from the National Capital Region (NCR).

By the first week of January, OCTA projected that the Philippines may report 10,000 new infections, of which 8,000 are from NCR.

David said that though it is possible for the increase to slow down after the holiday season, it is likely to continue.

“‘Yung mga projections, again, those are the worst-case scenarios. It’s not a guarantee that it will happen. We hope that the cases will be controlled very soon,” he said.

OCTA earlier reported that the reproduction number in the National Capital Region rose to 2.19 from the “critical” 1.47 previously reported.

Meanwhile, despite the slight increase in hospital admissions in the region, it is still very low risk. —NB, GMA News