Presidential spokesman Harry Roque today welcomed reports that the country recorded a downtrend in the transmission of the coronavirus disease-2019 in recent days.
(Jansen Romero / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
According to Roque, the country's average two-week growth rate of COVID cases has dropped to 18 percent as of Oct. 13. The growth rate refers to the number of coronavirus cases of a particular area for the past two weeks.
"Yung average two-week growth rate ay bumaba po para sa buong Pilipinas. Mabuting balita 'yan (That's good news) and congratulations Philippines," he said during a Palace press briefing.
Roque said the country also recorded a lower daily attack rate of 2.35 for every 100,000 population.
The attack rate monitors the daily increase or decrease in COVID cases in a certain area or population. A daily attack rate of more than seven percent is ranked "high," rate between one and seven is "medium," while below one is considered "low."
Roque said the country also kept the coronavirus reproduction number below one at .98. The reproduction rate indicates the average number of people who will contract a disease from an infected. "Patuloy pa natin pabababain ang ating R0 (So let us continue to bring down our R0)," he said.
In Metro Manila, Roque said the two-week growth rate also decreased to 31 percent while daily attack rate is 6.61.
"Napakalaki po na binaba sa Metro Manila. Naku salamat sa pagtugon sa 'Mask, hugas, iwas' ng Presidente (There is a significant drop in Metro Manila. Thank you to those who responded to the President's call to wear mask, wash hands, and observe physical distancing)," he said.
Nonetheless, Roque said there are still areas that recorded an increase in coronavirus cases. "Sana sa mga areas na ito ay gumawa ng hakbang para maipatupad ang 'mask, iwas, hugas' (These areas will hopefully take steps to enforce the wearing of mask, distancing, hand washing)," he said.
As of Oct. 14, the country has recorded 346,536 coronavirus cases, including 46,227 active cases and 293,860 recoveries. The death toll has reached 6,449.
Of the active coronavirus cases, Roque said 84.5 percent of the cases are mild, 10.5 percent asymptomatic, 3.3 percent critical, and 1.6 percent severe.
Apart from the decelerating transmission rate, Roque cited that the country's hospital capacity remained sufficient. "Sa critical care ng ospital, wala po tayo sa kritikal (On the critical care capacity of hospitals, we have not yet reached the critical level)," he said.
As of Oct. 13, Roque said 52 percent of the 1,900 intensive care unit beds in the country are available while 55 percent of the 13,300 isolation beds are also available. Of the 5,500 ward beds, 57 percent are available. The availability of ventilators stands at 73 percent of the 2,100 units.