The independent research group OCTA on Tuesday, Jan. 11, said that Metro Manila is now dealing with a "severe outbreak" of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) amid the Omicron variant taking over Delta as the dominant variant in the country.
"The average daily attack rate (ADAR) increased to 89.42, which is above the Covidactnow threshold for a severe outbreak--greater than 75 per day per 100,000," OCTA Research Fellow Dr. Guido David said in a post on Twitter.
The research group assesses the risk level of an area using the indicators of the Covid Act Now that was developed by the Harvard Global Health Institute, Apple, Microsoft, and Bloomberg.
Moreover, David said that Metro Manila's seven-day positivity rate, which refers to the percentage of individuals who yielded positive results from among those who were tested for COVID-19, has increased to 48 percent.
However, he noted that the COVID-19 reproduction number has decreased to 5.22 from 5.65, "which indicates the trend slowed down slightly."
Reproduction number refers to the average number of secondary infections by each infected individual.
David also pointed out that hospital bed occupancy in Metro Manila has increased to 57 percent and is likely to exceed 70 percent next week.
"Although ICU occupancy is still manageable in the NCR , hospital bed occupancy for COVID-19 in the NCR is reaching capacity, close to maximum occupancy during the Delta surge," he said.
Overall, David said that Metro Manila is classified as "very high risk" for COVID-19.