Metro Manila shifted from "very low" to “low risk” for Covid-19 infections following a slight increase in its reproduction number, the independent research group OCTA said.
In an update shared on Twitter on Thursday, April 28, OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David said that Metro Manila’s reproduction number has increased from 0.62 on April 14-20 to 0.71 on April 21-27.
This means that Metro Manila has moved to low risk from very low-risk classification for Covid-19.
Reproduction number refers to the average number of secondary infections by each infected individual.
Meanwhile, David said that all other Covid indicators are still “very low.”
He noted that Metro Manila averaged 77 cases over the past week from 93 cases previously.
The utilization of healthcare and ICU also remained very low at 22 percent and 19 percent, respectively.
On Wednesday, April 27, the Department of Health (DOH) first reported the presence of Omicron coronavirus subvariant called BA.2.12 in the Philippines.
The first case of the BA.2.12 Omicron subvariant involved a 52-year-old Finnish woman who arrived from Finland on April 2.
This subvariant is said to be 2.5 times more transmissible but could be less severe than the original version of the Omicron variant.