QC maintains drop in daily COVID-19 cases for 4th straight week — research group
MANILA, Philippines — For the fourth week in a row, the average number of coronavirus cases being recorded per day in Quezon City has been steadily declining as the city ramps up its testing for the pathogen, a research group found.
This is according to a report released by independent research group UP OCTA, which is composed of scholars from the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo Tomas, and was based on public data from the Department of Health.
In its latest report, OCTA Research found that the number of daily new cases, per data from the Department of Health, had been steadily declining throughout the month of August. The figures are as follows:
- August 8 to 14 (438 daily cases on average)
- August 15 to 21 (334)
- August 22 to 28 (288)
- August 29 to September 4 (250)
- September 5 to 11 (196)
The research group also noted another drop in Reproduction Number, which indicates the average number of people who will contract a contagious disease and the movement of the virus, from 0.92 on August 31 to September 6, to 0.79 by mid-September, which the city government pointed out is lower compared to that of Metro Manila and the country as a whole.
Based on data from the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, the figures are even lower, the city government said in a statement. With the CESU figures, the average daily cases went from 205 per day on the week of August 11 to 17 to 102 cases daily from September 8 to 14.
According to CESU head Rolly Cruz, a doctor, the city is one of the most aggressive local governments when it comes to testing, with an average of 600-800 tests per day.
"It is a challenge for our community-based testing sites to do more tests since the national government, through testing czar Vince Dizon, has been actively helping us," said Dr. Cruz.
However, Dr. Ranjit Rye of OCTA Research said the city must ramp up testing to reach a positivity rate of 10 percent.
"As of now, the city has an 11% positivity rate. The more tests you conduct, the more we can go out of the uncertainty and the better for the city," he said.
Joseph Juico, head of the QC COVID-19 Task Force, also disclosed that the city is "slowly closing in" on its daily target of 1,000 tests.
"In a span of one month, we have managed to reduce the number of daily cases by 50 percent...but we still must not be complacent. We will continue to take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus, especially in public places, homes and jobs,” said Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte in a statement. — Franco Luna
Disclosure: Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte is a shareholder of Philstar Global Corp., which runs Philstar.com. This article is published based on editorial guidelines.
- Latest
- Trending
