The positivity rate in the National Capital Region decreased to two percent, the first time since the region began its testing for COVID-19, independent monitoring OCTA Research Group said Friday.
OCTA, in its latest report, said this was within the 3 percent ideal positivity rate of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC).
It also meets the 5 percent benchmark of the World Health Organization.
OCTA said the seven-day average of new cases in NCR decreased to 349 from 421.
Meanwhile, NCR recorded a reproduction number of 0.48.
The reproduction number refers to the number of people infected by one case. A reproduction number that is below 1 indicates that the transmission of the virus is slowing down.
NCR also has an average daily attack rate (ADAR) of 2.46 per 100,000 individuals.
According to OCTA, NCR remains classified as low risk for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Navotas, Caloocan, Pateros, Marikina, and Valenzuela are classified as very low risk for COVID-19 while the remaining LGUs are classified as low risk.
Navotas recorded an ADAR rate of 0.74, Caloocan with 0.93, Pateros with 1.45, Marikina with 1.64, and Valenzuela with 1.78.
Muntinlupa recorded an ADAR of 1.46 but has a moderate healthcare utilization rate and an ICU utilization rate of 52 percent and 65 percent, respectively.
“While the NCR and all the LGUs have done well to sustain the downward trend, the goal for the region is to continue to best practices and standards to decrease new cases to less than 50 per day by the end of the year,” OCTA said.
OCTA, however, said its findings and position as reflected in its report do not necessarily reflect the position of the Department of Health and the Inter-Agency Task Force.
In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David said the Philippines also recorded a seven-day average of 1,500 and a positivity rate of 4 percent.
David said he was hopeful the number of new cases would continue to decrease in the coming days.
“But I hope it will continue to go down. We can see that the number of new cases is still decreasing in Indonesia and here in the Philippines,” David said.
The Philippines logged on Friday 1,485 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 2,823,210, the Department of Health reported.
The DOH also reported 277 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 46,698.
