MANILA, Philippines — Coronavirus cases continue to decrease in Quezon City, whose figures are nearing the same case numbers as this time last year before the Delta variant surge, the city government said Wednesday.
According to the OCTA Research Group, the average daily new cases in Quezon City for the week of November 2 to 8 dropped to 104 from more than 1,100 cases during the peak of the Delta surge back in September — closer to the 95 average number of cases recorded during the same period last year.
However, Quezon City also topped the group's list of local government units with the most cases reported on Tuesday, November 9.
Despite this, OCTA classified the situation in the city as being low-risk given that a -45% growth rate in the number of cases over the past week was recorded.
“The situation in Quezon City has been improving over the past month and there is a high chance that the cases will continue to go down further. However, we must remain vigilant to sustain the numbers,” OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David said.
The reproduction number is now at .38, compared to .77 last year while the average daily attack rate (ADAR) per 100,000 population is at 3.27, slightly higher than the 3.02 documented at this tim in 2020.
The average number of tests conducted in QC rose to 4, 253 but positivity rate is only at 4% which means that only a small percentage from the number of people tested confirmed positive.
“Even though there are surges, like the rest of the country, the city government has managed the spread and eventually decreases the number of cases,” Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a statement.
Contact tracing continues to improve as the city records 29.67 contacts traced per positive individual.
Belmonte said that the city shall continue to implement necessary protocols to further decrease cases and mitigate infection amidst the opening of many business establishments as Metro Manila downgrades to Alert Level 2.
“We remind every QCitizen to still practice basic health protocols especially minors who are now allowed to go out. While many are already protected by the vaccines, we can still get infected. So vigilance is still important,” Belmonte said.
To date, health authorities have recorded 2.80 million coronavirus infections in the Philippines, 30,544 of whom are still classified as active cases.