New coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Metro Manila, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal are on a "downward trend," the OCTA Research Group said on Friday, Jan. 28.
In an update via Twitter, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David noted that Rizal has improved to "moderate risk" while Metro Manila, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, and Quezon are still at "high risk," based on the internationally-developed COVID Act Now indicators used by the research group.
"It looks like it has peaked outside NCR Plus as a whole, cases will likely remain below 20,000 from here on and generally decrease," David said.
The Department of Health on Thursday, Jan. 27, reported 18,191 new cases nationwide, of which, 2,270 cases were from Metro Manila.
As of Jan. 27, the COVID-19 growth rate in Metro Manila dropped further to -67 percent, which means that the number of cases this week is 67 percent fewer than the number of cases during the previous week.
Moreover, the region's reproduction number or infection rate dipped further to 0.52.
Healthcare utilization also remains "low" at 43 percent.
However, Metro Manila's positivity rate, which refers to the percentage of individuals who yielded positive results from among those who were tested for COVID-19, remains "very high" at 22 percent.