The National Capital Region's (NCR) coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases from March 31 to April 6 have gone up by only 3 percent, according to OCTA Research Group's latest report released on Wednesday, April 7.
OCTA said that the average number of new COVID-19 cases reported per day in the NCR was 5,146 over the past week.
During this period, the group noted that the NCR is averaging 24,000 tests per day, 17 percent lower than the previous week’s average.
Likewise, OCTA said the NCR's reproduction number decreased to 1.43, while the reproduction number in the entire country was 1.45.
"Negative one-week growth rates were observed in Pasay, Marikina, Makati, Manila, Taguig, Navotas, and Mandaluyong, while single-digit or less growth rates were observed in Parañaque and Las Piñas," it pointed out.
However, OCTA clarified that these figures may still change due to late testing reports during the Holy Week break, where testing data decreased by 17 percent compared to the previous week.
Meanwhile, the positivity rate in NCR remained at 25 percent with slightly lower positivity rates observed in some cities (Pasay, 17 percent; Manila, 23 percent; Marikina, 23 percent; Makati, 24 percent).
OCTA said that cities belonging to the NCR-plus continue to have high hospital bed and intensive care unit or ICU utilization for COVID-19.
"Health care utilization rates will continue to remain high as the NCR Plus is expected to tally high daily new COVID-19 cases for the next few weeks," it added.