OCTA: Metro Manila's COVID-19 hospital bed occupancy rate 'dramatically decreases'

The hospital bed occupancy rate for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients in Metro Manila has "dramatically decreased" over the past two weeks, said OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David.
In his update on Tuesday, Oct. 5, David said that hospital occupancy in Metro Manila was down to 52 percent, "confirming that there is indeed a downward trend in new cases in the NCR (National Capital Region)."
However, he pointed out that the utilization of intensive care units (ICUs) catering to COVID-19 patients in Metro Manila remains high "due to the long recovery time of patients."
"According to (OCTA Research fellow) Dr. Benjamin Co, ICUs are always the last to be decongested due to the long recovery of ICU patients," David said in a tweet.
Based on OCTA's latest monitoring, Metro Manila is continuously seeing more improvements in its COVID-19 situation.
"Low numbers over the past few days have pushed the seven-day average in new cases in the NCR down to 2,942, as of Sept. 28 to Oct. 4)," David said.
"The last time the seven-day average was less than 3,000 was on August 10, five days into ECQ (enhanced community quarantine). The one-week growth rate is -27 percent and the reproduction number decreased to 0.76, with an error range of +0.06," he added.
David noted that the government's COVID-19 strategy seems to be working, adding that "it can be right to downgrade classification levels."