Independent research group OCTA on Wednesday, July 21, tagged 11 local government units (LGUs) in the country as high risk for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The high risk areas are Davao City, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Bacolod City, Makati City, Cagayan de Oro City, General Santos City, Baguio City, Taguig City, Laoag City, and the municipality of Mariveles in Bataan.
OCTA also noted a significant increase in new daily COVID-19 cases in Manila City, Makati City, Baguio City, and Laoag City during the July 14-20 period.
Its latest monitoring showed that the number of COVID-19 cases in Manila City increased to 109 from 82 in the previous week.
In Makati City, COVID-19 cases rose from 55 to 74; in Baguio City, from 49 to 64 cases; and in Laoag City, from 31 to 55 cases.
Moreover, infection rates remain "very high" in Laoag City (2.16 percent), Lapu-Lapu City (1.53 percent), and Cebu City (1.48 percent).
"Very high" incidence rates or average daily attack rates were still observed in Laoag City at 47.87 cases per 100,000 population and in Mariveles at 28.53 cases per 100,000 population.
Meanwhile, OCTA said intensive care unit or ICU utilization remains "very high" in Iloilo City (99 percent), Taguig City (92 percent), and Davao City (91 percent).
Based on its latest assessment, OCTA noted that the Philippines remains under "moderate" risk for COVID-19.
OCTA Research assesses the risk level of an area using the indicators of the COVID Act Now developed by the Harvard Global Health Institute, Apple, Microsoft, and Bloomberg.
Four indicators are used to determine the COVID risk of an area, which include incidence based on the local government unit's (LGU) most current reproduction number; incidence based on the most recent seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 population, also called average daily attack rate; hospital ICU utilization rate (ICUUR); and testing which refers to the most recent seven-day average of the test positivity rate.
"The overall risk assessment is based on the average of the four indicators," OCTA said.
Risk levels are color-coded as follows: Green for low-risk, Yellow for medium or moderate-risk; Amber for high-risk; and Red for very high-risk.