Quezon City's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) positivity rate has gone down to only four percent this week.
The local government on Tuesday said that "after weeks of continuous drop in active cases of COVID-19," its positivity rate is now "below the 5 percent positivity rate that the World Health Organization recommends as the threshold for re-opening the economy."
According to the local government, the University of the Philippines' OCTA Research Group has noted a four percent positivity rate from November 5 to 11. It is two percent lower than what was recorded from October 29 to November 4, which shows that its positivity rate further slows down.
"Also, based on the Department of Health case reports, an average of only 65 new cases per day were recorded from November 10-16 compared to the previous week’s average of 91 new cases," the local government added.
The city's recent COVID-19 reproduction number (Ro) is at .67. It is much lower than the Philippines' which is at .81 and Metro Manila's at .71.
Considering that the city was once the hotbed of COVID-19 infections in the country, Mayor Joy Belmonte welcomed the development and said that the city's "numbers show great improvements."
"We are hopeful that this precedes our ultimate goal of being a COVID-free city," she said.
The OCTA Research meanwhile stressed that the city should sustain in one to two weeks its positive rate, if not further lowering it down, before allowing further relaxation of quarantine protocols.
Belmonte said, they would follow the recommendation as the city needs "to be prudent in finding ways to help revitalize the economy."