Aside from Metro Manila, Quezon, and Rizal, the provinces of Cavite and Laguna are also now classified as "low risk" for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) transmission, the OCTA Research Group said on Wednesday, Feb. 16.
OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said the group has observed a continued decrease in COVID positivity rates of Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon over the past week.
Positivity rate refers to the number of individuals who yielded positive results from among those who were tested for COVID-19.
"The positivity rates in NCR and Calabarzon continue to fall as all provinces had less than 10 percent positivity rate as of February 15," David said in an update via Twitter.
"NCR, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, and Rizal are now classified as low risk while Batangas remained under moderate risk--barely--as Batangas is also expected to be re-classified as low risk within the next few days," he added.
Metro Manila, Quezon, and Rizal have been under low risk classification since last week.
David noted that Quezon province is "very close to being the first province under very low risk classification."
The research group assesses the risk level of an area using the indicators of the COVID Act Now that was developed by the Harvard Global Health Institute, Apple, Microsoft, and Bloomberg.