Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, Rizal now also low risk for COVID-19 transmission —OCTA

The provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Quezon and Rizal are now classified "low risk" for COVID-19 transmission, with Batangas expected to follow in a few days, according to OCTA Research on Wednesday.

In a tweet, OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David said positivity rates in Calabarzon, as well as in the National Capital Region, have dropped below 10%.

"The positivity rates in NCR and Calabarzon continued to fall as all provinces had less than 10% positivity rate as of February 15," he said.

OCTA earlier classified NCR as low risk for COVID-19 transmission. The independent monitoring group said the region may slide down to "very low risk" classification by March.

Among Calabarzon provinces, David said Quezon "is very close to being the first province under very low risk classification."

Based on OCTA's data, NCR has a positivity rate of 7% as of February 15, while Batangas has 10%, Cavite has 9%, Laguna and Rizal have 8%, and Quezon has 4%.

As for reproduction rate, NCR has 0.19, Batangas 0.25, Cavite 0.20, Laguna and Quezon 0.19, and Rizal 0.18.

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

Meanwhile, for average daily attack rate, the NCR has the highest with 3.57 while Quezon has the lowest at 0.79.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) logged the lowest daily COVID-19 tally this year with 2,010 new infections, bringing the nationwide cases to 3,641,940.

Total active cases, meanwhile, stood at 72,305, of which 1,498 were asymptomatic, 66,093 were mild, 2,961 were moderate, 1,441 were severe, and 312 were critical.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier said the entire Philippines is now classified as being at "low risk" of COVID-19.  —KBK, GMA News