MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila's COVID-19 reproduction rate has gone down to its lowest since May, OCTA Research said on Tuesday in its latest monitoring.
Dr. Guido David, one of the panel's fellows, shared the rate is now at 0.55. The last time it was at this level was in May this year, or at 0.56.
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Reproduction rate refers to the number of persons a COVID-19 positive individual can infect.
In September, the figure was as high as 1.03 that had decreased to 0.99 by the remaining days of the month.
"We hope we can keep [this] below 0.6 the rest of the year," David wrote on Twitter.
He said the capital region's seven-day average is also now at 1,411.
Last week, OCTA Research said Metro Manila's cities and its lone municipality are now at "moderate risk" for COVID-19, a view that the Department of Health shared as well.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire in Monday's briefing said the capital region continues to show a slow downward trend in cases, or by 27% in the previous seven days.
Metro Manila peaked in average daily reported cases during the week of September 5 to 11 at 5,714 new infections.
From October 11 to 17, an average of 1,448 Filipinos in the region contracted the disease per day.
Hospital bed occupancy has stayed at low level or at 43.60%, while ICU bed occupancy was at 59.47% indicating moderate level.
But authorities have sought to remind the public against complacency amid the improving numbers.
It came as the national government downgraded Metro Manila to Alert Level 3 status of the pilot granular lockdown.
Here, more restrictions were eased in a bid to spur economic recovery from the months-long hard quarantine, when the country was reporting five-digit new cases and the highest ever was at 26,603.
Additional businesses and industries were since allowed to operate, such as cinemas which had been closed in the region since the pandemic hit in 2020. — Christian Deiparine