MANILA, Philippines — Although the actual number of cases remains low, the OCTA Research group said yesterday it has monitored a slight uptick in the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Using data from the Department of Health (DOH), OCTA fellow Guido David said the seven-day positivity rate in the region slowly increased from 5.4 percent on Sept. 20 to 6.1 percent on Sept. 27.
The positivity rate measures the percentage of positive results out of the total RT-PCR tests conducted.
The latest positivity rate was the highest since it dropped to less than five percent in July.
Citing DOH data, David said that there were 185 new cases in the country on Sept. 28, with 73 in NCR.
The actual number of cases may be higher as government data only includes RT-PCR tests and not the more popular antigen tests.
Last June, the government lifted the state of public health emergency, which was first declared in March 2020 by then president Rodrigo Duterte.
President Marcos, in his proclamation, said the “country has maintained sufficient healthcare system capacity and low hospital bed utilization rates even after the liberalization of COVID-19 health protocols.”
Most mandates implemented during the pandemic, such as mandatory masking and social distancing, have been lifted. Most reported cases were also tagged as mild or moderate.