OCTA: Iloilo COVID-19 cases on downward trend

MANILA, Philippines — COVID cases in Iloilo province are on a downward trend, the OCTA Research Group reported yesterday.

OCTA fellow Guido David said the growth rate, which indicates the weekly change in average new cases, is now at -18 percent in Iloilo City and -11 in Iloilo province.

A negative growth rate indicates that average new cases are going down.

“Note that Iloilo and the National Capital Region were among the first areas in the Philippines to have an increase in COVID infections in the current wave,” David said, referring to cases caused by the Omicron subvariants.

Data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed that Iloilo province had an average of 110 new cases per day from Aug. 4 to 10, down from an average of 124 daily new cases in the preceding week.

Iloilo City’s average new cases dropped from 57 to 47 during the same period.

David said the reproduction rate or the number of people that a positive individual can infect dropped to less than one in both the city and the province.

The average daily attack rate as of Wednesday was at 9.94 per 100,000 people.

Positivity rate or the number of people who test positive for COVID dropped from 16.1 percent on Aug. 6 to 14.7 percent on Aug. 9 in the entire province.

Health care utilization was at 46 percent in Iloilo City as of Tuesday and 50.7 percent in the entire province as of Aug. 9.

David said COVID cases in the province were expected to subside by next month.

”Hopefully, the other provinces will see a downward trend soon,” he said.

Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, DOH officer-in-charge, had earlier said the COVID situation in the country remains manageable even as new cases are still rising.

The National Capital Region and Cordillera Administrative Region are classified at ”moderate risk” for the infection.