DAVAO CITY - A patient who is positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Davao City can infect three more persons susceptible to the virus, a city health official here said Wednesday (June 16).
"We already have a reproduction number of 2.84," said Dr. Ashley Lopez, acting head of the City Health Office and the focal person for COVID-19.
Lopez said the reproduction number (R0) refers to the capacity for a particular infected person to infect other susceptible individuals.
"Ang usa ka tao nga positive pila ang iyahang possible na matakdan sa isa ka adlaw (How many persons can one COVID-19 positive individual infect in a day)," he said.
"That means for every single infected person, kanang COVID-positive can be able to infect or transmit COVID-19 disease to other susceptible persons mga tulo kabuok so 1:3 ang ratio nato karon (That means for every single infected person, a COVID-positive patient, can be able to infect or to transmit COVID-19 disease to three other susceptible persons, so we have a 1:3 ratio as of now)," Lopez said.
Lopez warned the public that Davao City is still in a surge with cases averaging at least 200 in a day.
As of 6 pm on Tuesday, Davao City has recorded 277 new confirmed cases out of the 1,622 individuals tested. Lopez said Davao City's active cases are at 3,677 which "accounts for 17% of all our total cases since March last year, since the start of the pandemic."
Davao City has recorded a total of 20,277 cases, with 15,784 recoveries, including the 71 new recoveries on Tuesday, and 809 deaths, including the three new deaths recorded.
Lopez said the intensity of the transmission right now might be caused by a variant.
"Grabe gyud ang transmission ron (The transmission right now is widespread) and I believe that one factor would be the variants," Lopez said.
"Basin naa na tay South African variant diri although dili pa na sya documented, but I believe.. mao man pud ni ang nahitabo sa Manila last time when Manila was under surge (We might already have the South African variant here although it is not yet documented, but I believe... This was what happened in Manila last time when Manila was under surge)," he added.
Lopez added that the age group most affected is the working group with ages ranging from 20 to 39 years old. However, Lopez said that, unlike last year, they have observed that the number of children who contracted COVID-19 is also increasing. He said the facilities catering to minor patients in the city are already full.