(DR. GUIDO DAVID / TWITTER)

Several highly urbanized cities (HUCs) outside the so-called National Capital Region (NCR) Plus--which is composed of Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan--have shown "very high" coronavirus disease (COVID-19) growth rates from Jan. 12 to 18, the independent research group OCTA said on Wednesday, Jan. 19.

"While growth rates have slowed in NCR Plus, they are still accelerating in many HUCs outside NCR Plus," OCTA Research Fellow Dr. Guido David said in a tweet.

Metro Manila's current COVID growth rate is down to 10 percent but the incidence rate or average daily attack rate is still classified as "severe" with 111.47 cases per 100,000 people.

The region's reproduction number or infection rate is slightly down to 2.07.

Meanwhile, OCTA monitored "very high" one-week growth rates in Tacloban City (469 percent), Cebu City (378 percent), Davao City (305 percent), Iloilo City (281 percent), Baguio City (269 percent), Cagayan de Oro City (261 percent), Zamboanga City (235 percent), General Santos City (189 percent), Naga City (188 percent), Bacolod City (183 percent), Lapu-Lapu City (182 percent), Santiago City (163 percent), Dagupan City (120 percent), Lucena City (105 percent), Angeles City (72 percent), and Olongapo City (68 percent).

Baguio City recorded the highest ADAR at 130.56.

The cities that registered the highest reproduction numbers were Tacloban (4.59), Cebu (4.51), Baguio (4.28), and Davao (4.11)

Reproduction number refers to the average number of secondary infections by each infected individual, while ADAR refers to the number of new daily cases per 100,000 population.

#NCR Plus

Cities outside 'NCR Plus' log 'very high' COVID growth rates -- OCTA

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