10 provinces hit ‘very high’ COVID-19 positivity rate

MANILA, Philippines — Ten provinces registered “very high” COVID-19 positivity rates or more than 20 percent as of July 22 compared to July 16 data, the OCTA Research Group said yesterday.

OCTA fellow Guido David said the provinces with very high positivity rates as of July 22 were Aklan (32.6 percent), Capiz (31.9 percent), Nueva Ecija (30.5 percent), Isabela (27.8 percent), Pampanga (26.1 percent); Laguna (26.0 percent); Cavite (24.5 percent); Tarlac (24.0 percent); Rizal (22.8 percent), and Antique (22.2 percent).

“Very high positivity rates (more than 20 percent) were observed in Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Isabela,” David said in a tweet.

Last week, he said that in provinces where the positivity rate is very high or above 20 percent, the public is strongly advised to practice necessary caution to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.

According to David, the National Capital Region’s one-week positivity rate climbed up from 12.7 percent on July 16 to 14 percent on July 22.

NCR has the biggest number of COVID-19 cases at 1,324 as of July 23.

A total of 274 new cases were reported in Quezon City followed by Manila (159); Makati (150); Taguig (121); Parañaque (114); Pasig (100), and Las Piñas (86).

David said the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 in NCR further increased at the end of last week.

The daily positivity rate in NCR climbed to 16 percent.

COVID cases surpass 27,000

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded an additional 3,657 COVID cases as the highly infectious disease surpassed 27,000 nationwide.

DOH said the additional cases pushed to 3,752,534 the total number of confirmed COVID cases nationwide.

Of the total cases, DOH said 27,116 are active while 3,644,735 have recovered from the illness.

The number of those who succumbed to the infection reached 60,683 yesterday.

NCR posted the most number of new cases in the last 14 days with 12,077, followed by Calabarzon with 7,574 and Western Visayas with 2,443

Despite the continuing rise in COVID cases, DOH reported that the hospital bed occupancy rate remains low at 24 percent. – Mayen Jaymalin