OCTA: Quezon City classified as low-risk for COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City is now classified as low-risk for coronavirus transmission with its numbers getting closer to pre-Delta surge figures, the OCTA Research Group said Tuesday. 

In a special report issued Tuesday afternoon, the research group said that this came after the seven-day average in COVID-19 cases decreased to 190 in the past week from 204 in the week before for a -7% decrease. 

"The current incidence rate or average daily attack rate in Quezon City is 5.97 per 100,000 per day, which is considered moderate based on covidactnow.org metrics and DOH criteria," OCTA said. 

The peak seven-day average during the Delta variant surge was 1,181 in September, while the surge level before the emergence of the variant was 118 new cases per day. 

OCTA added that the current reproduction number in the city of 0.50 is "considered low," while the positivity rate in the city decreased to 5% "which is considered low and is within the acceptable level recommended by the World Health Organization."

"The success of pandemic management in the NCR has largely depended on the success of the largest cities in the region, which include Quezon City and Manila," the report read. 

"Effective epidemic management has enabled not Quezon City but also the NCR to achieve a low risk level," it also said, adding that this does not reflect the alert level rating used by the DOH and the IATF. 

Elsewhere in Metro Manila, Navotas City also announced that it set a new record for this year's lowest active cases of COVID-19.

A report from the City Health Office showed that Navotas only has 31 active cases as of 2 November, breaking its 6 February record of 33 cases.

"OCTA Research has also classified Navotas as 'very low risk.' We congratulate and thank each Navoteño, especially our frontliners, for doing their utmost to help keep our city safe from COVID," Mayor Toby Tiangco said in a statement.

To date, health authorities have recorded 2.75 million coronavirus infections in the country, 43,185 of whom are still classified as active cases. 

Just 3,117 coronavirus cases were tallied on Monday. It has been 595 days since the first enhanced community quarantine was hoisted over some parts of Luzon.

Both the Department of Health and OCTA have agreed that coronavirus cases are expected to stabilize back to pre-Delta numbers, indicating a possible shift to Alert Level 2 in the coming weeks.