OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David on Tuesday, July 19, said that Metro Manila’s Covid-19 positivity rate—or the number of individuals who yielded positive results from among those who were tested for Covid-19–has decreased in the past two days.
“We could see that the highest positivity rate was on July 15 . It has already decreased two days in a row in the NCR ,” David said in a virtual forum.
“This is promising this does not guarantee that it is the peak, but it could be. We should wait for one week before we see the trend kung talagang (if) it’s continuing to go down. Kasi (Because) sometimes this can still reverse. Not always. It does not happen a lot, but it can still happen that it can still reverse,” he added.
David pointed out that Metro Manila is “not out of the woods yet.”
“The good news is that ICU occupancy in NCR is only at 24 percent, while health care utilization is at 30.7 percent. Malayo pa siya sa (It is still far from the) concerning levels na (of) above 50 percent,” he said.
“This is a positive development. Hopefully, it (positivity rate) continues to go down,” he added.
Meanwhile, OCTA Research president Ranjit Rye reiterated that the country is still in the midst of a surge, even though there are some positive developments in Metro Manila.
“We’re still standing by our projection of around seven to 10 days. We might see something very positive in terms of a trend that shows that we’ve reached the peak (of cases in Metro Manila). After that, we might be seeing a decline,” Rye said.
“It’s important for everybody to know that cases are still rising outside the National Capital Region (NCR). They are actually rising in the NCR but the growth rate is much smaller now. Week-on-week, the growth rate is declining. But we are still in the midst of the surge. While it’s true that severe cases are very, very low, and that hospital utilization is also quite low, the surge is manageable. Still, it’s a surge and we inform our countrymen to be careful and to follow minimum public health standards. To always wear mask when you get out of the house (and) to get themselves vaccinated or boosted, if they are not yet vaccinated or boosted,” he added.