Metro Manila and its neighboring provinces remained under "low risk" classification as they continued to see improvements in its coronavirus disease (COVID-19) numbers, the OCTA Research Group said on Friday, Feb. 18.

"The positivity rates and ADAR in the NCR and Calabarzon continued to decrease as all provinces had less than 10 percent positivity rate as of February 15," OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David said in a tweet.

Positivity rate refers to the number of individuals who yielded positive results from among those who were tested for COVID-19, while the ADAR or incidence rate refers to the number of new daily cases per 100,000 population while the positivity rate refers.

Aside from Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Quezon, OCTA said Batangas is now also classified as low-risk for COVID-19 transmission.

David said that Metro Manila's ADAR has decreased to 3.45 cases per 100,000 people.

Meanwhile, the region's COVID reproduction number or infection rate remained "very low" at 0.20.

He added that Metro Manila's positivity rate decreased to 6 percent, while the healthcare utilization rate remained "very low" at 26 percent.