Philippines' 4.1% COVID-19 positivity rate meets WHO benchmark —DOH

The COVID-19 positivity rate of the Philippines is now at 4.1%, meeting the 5% benchmark of the World Health Organization, according to the Department of Health.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the country remains under a low Risk classification with less than 1 per 100,000 daily attack rate.

However, she said cases continue to increase with the country recording 710 new cases daily, higher by 257 cases compared to last week.

According to Vergeire, the country logged 4,976 new cases from June 21 to June 27.

NCR shows steep increase

Meanwhile, Vergeire said the National Capital Region showed a “steep increase” in new COVID-19 cases in the past week.

The region has an average of 350 cases per day.

NCR will remain under Alert Level 1 from July 1 to July 15.

Independent monitoring group OCTA Research previously said that the positivity rate in NCR has increased to 5.9% as of June 25 from the previous 5.6% as of June 22.

Vergeire said the rest of Luzon, NCR Plus areas, and the Visayas also showed “sharp case increases” with less than 150 cases per day while Mindanao has also been recording rise in cases at around 50 per day.

Admissions

According to Vergeire, severe and critical admissions remain less than 1,000 since mid-March this year despite the slight increase in the past few days.

She said 10.68% of total admissions are severe and critical cases, lower than the 20% recorded in January.

“Kaya naman po magpabakuna na tayo, magpa-booster sa lalong madaling panahon upang maiwasan po natin ang pagdami ng malulubhang kaso,” she said.

(Let’s get vaccinated and boosted immediately to avoid the increase in cases.)

At present, almost 70.5 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This is 78.28% of the target population.

Data also showed that more than 9.5 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 and 3.5 million children aged 5 to 11 have also been vaccinated.

Meanwhile, almost 15 million have received their booster shots while 792,000 healthcare workers, senior citizens, and immunocompromised individuals have received their second booster.—LDF, GMA News