Metro Manila now under 'moderate risk' from COVID-19 — OCTA
MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila cities and its lone municipality are now at "moderate risk" from COVID-19 as the number of new cases reported each day continues to go down, OCTA Research said Thursday.
The independent panel of experts gave this assessment as the capital region prepares to see more restrictions eased. It will shift to Alert Level 3 on October 16, a looser quarantine category under a lockdown system being tested in Metro Manila.
OCTA said the virus's reproduction rate — the number of people a positive individual can infect — in Metro Manila was down to 0.60, referring to the number of persons a positive individual can infect.
"The seven-day average in new cases dropped to 1,847," it added, "30% lower than the previous week's average."
Despite gnerally lower numbers, San Juan still has a critical average daily attack rate — the number of cases in an area over a two-week period, divided by the population there — at 28.68.
Caloocan, Navotas, Malabon, Manila, and Muntinlupa had moderate ADARs, while the remaining nine cities and the lone municipality of Pateros were at high risk.
Metro Manila's ADAR stood at 13.05, also at high risk.
OCTA said 49% of hospital beds in the capital region are taken, a low level of occupancy.
ICU bed utilization for the region, meanwhile, was at 65% or at moderate level.
Taguig City still has 100% occupancy of ICU beds and Manila has an occupancy rate of 81%. Cities with high level for ICU utilization were Makati, Las Piñas, Mandaluyong and Quezon City.
The figure was not available for Navotas.
"NCR and all 17 constituent local government units were classified as moderate risk using our own metrics," the panel added.
The Department of Health earlier this month classified Metro Manila under moderate risk along with the rest of the country.
Shifting to a lower alert level status means more businesses and industries would be allowed to operate or increase capacity.
Government figures as of October 13 showed there are now 78.95% or 7.71 million residents in Metro Manila fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
Some 91.82% of the target population of 8.97 million have received a first dose.
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