OCTA: NCR positivity rate rises to 10.6 percent­

MANILA — According to monitoring conducted by the OCTA Research group, the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in the National Capital Region (NCR) further increased over the past week.

Citing data from the Department of Health, OCTA fellow Guido David said the region’s seven-day positivity rate increased from 7.3 percent on April 16 to 10.6 percent on April 23.

The positivity rate measures the percentage of positive results out of the total number of RT-PCR tests conducted.

The World Health Organization recommends a positivity rate of five percent or below to effectively manage the pandemic.

As of Monday, David said the nationwide positivity rate is at 10 percent.

In a post on his Twitter account, he noted that the NCR has an average of only 3,120 RT-PCR tests per day, down from around 11,000 in April 2022.

Official government data only take into account RT-PCR tests and not the antigen tests that have become a common way of testing for COVID-19 infection.

While this means that cases could be higher than the official count, David earlier said that looking at positivity rates and other indicators could still show trends in the number of cases.

Over the past weeks, positivity rates in various areas have seen a steady rise.

On Monday, the DOH reported 429 new cases, with 180 in NCR. He said the positivity rate in the region is on track to hit 15 percent before possibly plateauing by mid-May.

Hospital occupancy remained low at 21 percent.

QC still ‘low risk’

While the number of new cases has slightly increased, the Quezon City government said the city remains at low risk for COVID-19.

Citing an assessment from OCTA Research, the city government said the number of average daily new cases increased from 17 last week to 22 this week.

The positivity rate, meanwhile, increased from 5.9 percent to 8.3 percent.

“The city remains at low risk level,” it said in an advisory in Filipino. “But the local government continues to remind everyone to stay safe and follow minimum health protocols to protect yourself from the virus and other contagious diseases.”

The city government said it has administered over 6.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. A total of 2.6 million adults and minors are considered fully vaccinated, while almost 1.6 million first and second booster doses have been administered.