NCR COVID-19 positivity rate almost flat – OCTA

MANILA, Philippines — The increase in the seven-day COVID positivity rate in the National Capital Region (NCR) is “almost flat,” OCTA Research said yesterday.

In a Twitter post, OCTA fellow Guido David said the positivity rate – which measures the number of people who test positive for COVID out of the total tests conducted – was “almost flat” from 25.4 percent on May 13 to 25.7 percent on May 20, “suggesting that it may be decreasing this week.”

OCTA, however, observed high positivity rates in many provinces, with Isabela having the highest positivity rate increase during the same period, from 36.6 percent to 67.4 percent.

Other provinces with high positivity rates include Bataan, Batangas, Benguet, Bulacan, Cagayan, Camarines Sur, Cavite, La Union, Laguna, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, Pampanga, Quezon, Rizal and Zambales.

7 new Omicron subvariant cases

Meanwhile, the country has detected seven new cases of the COVID Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16 or “Arcturus,” the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Based on the DOH’s latest COVID Biosurveillance Report, two new Arcturus cases were identified in Central Luzon and another two in Western Visayas.

Meanwhile, the Bicol Region, Mimaropa and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) recorded one case each of Arcturus.

This brought the total number of Arcturus cases in the country to 11.

According to the DOH, there is local transmission of the Arcturus subvariant after four cases were earlier detected in Western Visayas. All four patients have recovered.

“There is an increasing number of cases of the (sub)variant with no linkages to international cases or no known history of exposure,” the DOH said.

Arcturus is tagged as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization and a “variant under monitoring” by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

The DOH earlier said Arcturus is more transmissible, but poses low risk to infected people.

The latest COVID Bulletin issued by the DOH showed there were 12,426 new cases logged from the period of May 15 to May 21.

The DOH also said there were 87 patients in severe and critical condition, while 13 deaths from COVID-19 were verified – one of which occurred from May 8 to May 21.

The daily average number of new COVID cases is 1,775. This is 0.1 percent higher than cases recorded from May 8 to May 14.

On Sunday, the health department recorded 486 severe and critical COVID patients who sought admission in hospitals. This number is nine percent of the total COVID admissions in the country.

Out of the 2,134 ICU beds intended for COVID patients, 389 (18.2 percent) were occupied while 23 percent or 4,211 out of 18,321 non-ICU COVID beds are being used.

Senator tests positive for 3rd time

For the third time, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva has tested positive for COVID and has been suffering from “fever-like symptoms.”

Villanueva said he took an antigen test on Sunday night when he “started feeling worse with fever-like symptoms” and tested positive.

He first tested positive for COVID in January and August last year.

Villanueva does not know where he could have gotten the virus as his activities the previous days were all at the Senate and his home.

With his duty as the Senate majority leader important in the plenary, Villanueva said he would be working remotely on Monday. He noted that the Senate had in its agenda three bills for approval on the third and final reading. – Rhodina Villanueva, Cecille Suerte Felipe