A fellow of the independent research group OCTA on Tuesday, Jan. 18, expressed concern over the increasing number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases being reported all over the country.
While the growth rate of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila has slowed down, OCTA Research Fellow Dr. Guido David said that cases are now increasing all over the country with Baguio City, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu, and Angeles City reporting single-day record highs in new cases.
"As the Omicron pandemic slows down in the NCR , the wave is still accelerating in many other parts of the country," David said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Citing the data from the Department of Health (DOH), David noted that four highly urbanized cities (HUCs) had new highs in the number of new cases on Jan. 17.
These were Baguio City (698 cases), Cebu City (448 cases), Lapu-Lapu City (252 cases), and Angeles City (239 cases).
"The infection level or reproduction number (as of January 14) in these HUCs are all very high, with weekly growth rates of more than 100 percent, while the ADAR (average daily attack rates) are at criticial level, above 25 per 100,000 people per day (calculated from January 11 to 17, 2022," David said.
Reproduction number refers to the average number of secondary infections by each infected individual, while ADAR or incidence rate refers to the number of new daily cases per 100,000 population.
"It is possible that these HUCs may continue to see an increase in new COVID-19 cases considering the very high infection levels," he added.
David advised the public to remain vigilant in following minimum public health protocols to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 infections.
"The Omicron wave is very rapid but it might also pass by an area very quickly. Stay safe everyone," he added.
In a taped briefing with President Duterte on Monday, Jan. 17, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque said that about 90 percent of the latest samples that have undergone genome sequencing were found to be of the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19.