NCR’s COVID-19 positivity rate dips to 12.1% —OCTA

The COVID-19 positivity rate in the National Capital Region (NCR) decreased slightly to 12.1% as of September 3, according to the independent group OCTA research on Tuesday.

In a tweet, OCTA research fellow Dr. Guido David said this was a decrease from 12.9% recorded on August 27.

The positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who were found positive for COVID-19 among the total number of individuals tested. The World Health Organization's threshold for a positivity rate being too high is 5%.

Luzon provinces

Guido said a very high positivity rate was observed in Camarines Sur with 33.5%, followed by Albay with 32.3%, Nueva Ecija with 31.8%, and Tarlac with 22.5%.

Several provinces have positivity rates below 20% including Cagayan (19.6%), Isabela (19.6%), La Union (16.6%), Zambales (16.3%), Pampanga (15.4%), Laguna (13.3%), Benguet (12.7%), Rizal (12%), Cavite (11.7%), Ilocos Norte (11.4%), Bulacan (10.5%), and Quezon (10.1%).

He said the positivity rates also improved to less than 10% in the provinces of Batangas (9.2%), Pangasinan (8.9%), and Bataan (6.6%).

Other provinces

Guido said the positivity rate in Palawan (30.8%) and Zamboanga del Sur (20.4%) are very high.

He said Cebu had the lowest positivity rate with 6.2%, followed by Iloilo with 7.2%.

Meanwhile, other provinces outside Luzon with below 20% positivity rate were South Cotabato (19.3%), Negros Oriental (19.2%), Bohol (18.5%), Leyte (17%), Lanao del Norte (16.9%), Misamis Oriental (16.7%), Aklan (15.5%), Davao del Sur (13.2%), Oriental Mindoro (12.9%), Capiz (11.4%), Negros Occidental (10.6%), and Davao del Norte (10.4%).

The Philippines on Tuesday registered 1,326 new COVID-19 infections, the lowest daily tally since July 6.

The new cases brought the nationwide tally to 3,894,840, based on the latest figures from the Department of Health (DOH).

According to the data, active cases also went down to 23,272 from 24,493 on Monday. — BM, GMA News