Independent research group OCTA on Wednesday, Aug. 25, said the surge in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Cagayan de Oro City has slowed down over the past week, as marked by the decrease in reproduction number from 1.38 to 1.15.
"If the trends continue, Cagayan de Oro should start to see a decrease in new COVID-19 cases in one to two weeks," OCTA said.
Based on OCTA's monitoring from Aug. 18 to 24, Cagayan de Oro had a seven-day average of 182 new COVID-19 cases. This means that its incidence rate or average daily attack rate is down from "critical" level to "high" level.
However, hospital bed and ICU occupancy remained above 85 percent or at critical levels, and therefore, Cagayan de Oro remains an "area of concern."
OCTA also tagged the cities of Iligan, Valencia, and Malaybalay as areas of concern due to significant increases in their new COVID-19 cases over the past week.
Both Valencia City and Malaybalay City have critical incidence rates, while Iligan City has high hospital bed and ICU occupancy rates.
Moreover, the group noted that the reproduction number in Davao City has increased slightly to 1.16 after remaining in the endemic zone--between 0.9 and 1.1 reproduction number--during the past three weeks.
It explained, however, that the "low" reproduction number in Davao City indicates that there is no cause for alarm.
"Hospital bed occupancy was at moderate level, while ICU occupancy for COVID was at high level," OCTA said.