'Green' COVID-19 indicators likely in Metro Manila by next week, says OCTA
An OCTA Research fellow, on Thursday, Feb. 24, said that “no dangers are currently seen” in Metro Manila and that the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) indicators in the region will likely transition into “green” by next week.
The color green, based on the OCTA’s legend, means that an indicator is “very low risk” for COVID-19.

“The projection is that for the National Capital Region (NCR), we will be at green. We will have green indicators by next week. Definitely, numbers will continue to improve, of course, we still encourage our kababayans to get boosted, vaccinated, and follow the minimum public health standards but right now we are not seeing any danger. That may change in the future if there are new variants but right now, there’s no danger that we are seeing,” said OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David during the Go Negosyo’s “Exploring a Safe Exit” virtual discussion.
David also disclosed that the healthcare utilization from Feb. 17 to Feb. 23 is now comparable with the Dec. 10 to Dec. 16, 2021’s COVID-19 data in Metro Manila.
“I chose this date because this is actually the time when we saw the best numbers ever in the NCR. Yes, we are not there yet but we can see that the reproduction number now is actually lower than last year. What does that mean? It means that we can expect the trends to decrease even further,” said David.

The seven-day average new cases from Dec. 10 to Dec. 16 was 69, while OCTA’s data showed that from Feb. 17 to Feb. 23 it was at 349. Meanwhile, the average daily attack rate (ADAR) and the testing positivity rate are still currently higher compared to the best week, but the group of experts said that the number will continue to decrease.
With these improvements, David said that the NCR could hit the “very low risk” classification in March.