The OCTA Research Group on Saturday, Feb. 13, has expressed concern over the rising number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections in Cebu.

In their latest report, Dr. Butch Ong said Cebu City currently has a positivity rate of 10 percent, higher than the minimum positivity rate of 5 percent set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Meaning 10 out of the 100 people tested are found positive. Medyo mataas ‘yan (That’s quite high),” Ong said during the Laging Handa press briefing.
“Medyo mataas ang positivity rate and ito ay maaring dahil sa new variants na pumapasok sa siyudad (The positivity rate is quite high and this may be due to the new variants entering the city),” he added.
But Ong noted that the city’s hospital capacity is still far from the critical care level of 70 percent set by the Department of Health (DOH).
“The hospital occupancy in Cebu is 43 percent,” he said. “This is actually proof na tumaas yung hospital capacity ng Cebu City and the LGU did its work with regards to improving its hospital capacity.”
The Department of Health (DOH) reported 19 new cases of the new COVID-19 variant, which was first detected in the United Kingdom and was said to be more infectious. This brings the total number of infections to 44.
In a radio interview, Dr. Guido David said Cebu City has an average of 165 cases per day, almost at the same level as the number of cases recorded in the city last year.
“Ang kaibahan lang ngayon may availability pa ang mga hospital beds nila, Hindi pa naman puno pero nadadagdagan yung bilang ng kaso (The only difference now is that their hospital beds are still available, they are not full yet but the number of cases is increasing),” he said over DZMM.
“Nagkaroon kami ng projections na kung patuloy pang tumaas 'yung cases, baka abutan na rin nila yung 70 percent critical care in the few weeks (We have projections that if the cases continue to rise, they may reach 70 percent critical care in the few weeks ),” he added.
Cebu province is currently under modified general community quarantine, the lowest restriction level set by the government which gives people more freedom in their daily activities amid the threat of COVID-19.