The wave of Covid-19 infections driven by Omicron subvariants BA.5 and BA.4 is now over in Metro Manila as cases in the capital region continue to decrease, an infectious disease expert said.

This is one of the factors behind the reported decrease in Metro Manila’s Covid-19 positivity rate that went down to 7.8 percent on Nov. 7 from 9.5 percent on Oct. 31, said Dr. Rontgene Solante of San Lazaro Hospital in Manila.

“We already passed the worst of the BA.5 and BA.4. Ibig sabihin, nalagpasan na natin ‘yung tinatawag natin na wave, so pababa na ang mga kaso (That means, we have already surpassed what we call the wave, so the cases are going down),” said Solante during a televised briefing on Thursday, Nov. 10.

“Second, dahil bumaba na siya, we also developed some form of population immunity na nakukuha natin doon sa mga na-infection—nag-develop na ng antibodies against BA.5 (because cases are decreasing, we also developed some form of population immunity that we get from the infection. With this, antibodies against BA.5 have been developed),” he added.

The vaccines also continue to provide protection for the public, said Solante. Meanwhile, hospital utilization rate in Metro Manila remains to be low, he added.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Nov. 9, Octa Research Group fellow Guido David said that the positivity rate in Metro Manila has declined to 7.8 percent.

“Trends project to around 100 new cases per day and less than five percent positivity rate by end of November 2022,” said David.

Nationwide trend

The number of cases nationwide have become stable in recent days, said Solante.

“In terms of the number of cases, medyo nagiging stable na ang mga kaso natin (our cases have become somewhat stable) for the past days. The fact na yung trends ng mga kaso natin hindi na pumalo like more than 2,000 unlike two to three months ago, nanatili nalang tayo between 1,000 to 1,500 (that our case trend no longer hit like more than 2,000, unlike two to three months ago. Currently, it stayed between 1,000 to 1,500),” he said.

“In highly populated regions, like National Capital Region, tuloy-tuloy naman na bumaba ang mga kaso (cases have continued to decrease), less than 1,000, including highly populated regions or cities like Cebu, Iloilo, and Bacolod—and Davao na very drastic, significant ang pagbaba (in which the decline in cases is very drastic or significant),” he said.

Solante is hopeful that the country’s current case trend will continue.

“Hopefully, in the next weeks, sana walang new variants of concern or subvariants ng Omicron na makapasok. Kung BA.5 lang ang paguusapan natin, hopefully, tuloy-tuloy nang maging mababa ang kaso natin (no new variants of concern or subvariants of Omicron will enter . If we only talk about BA.5, hopefully, our cases will continue to decrease),” he said.