The average number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippine capital went down by 30 percent compared to three weeks ago, an independent research groups reported on Sunday, April 25.
The OCTA research group said Metro Manila’s new daily COVID-19 cases averaged at 3,841 during the April 18 to 24 period, a 20 percent decline from the week before.
It is also 30 percent lower than the 5,552 daily average recorded three weeks ago, when the capital region was still under the most stringent form of community quarantine.
Reproduction rate in the capital has also dropped to 0.93, said the report. The positivity rate, or the percentage of infected individuals out of all tested, has also declined from as high as 25 percent three weeks ago to about 19 percent over the past week.
The group, however, said the country should scale up its daily COVID-19 testing to at least 150,000.
“There should be at least 75,000 daily COVID-19 tests in [the capital region] alone,” said Professor Guido David, a member of the OCTA Research Group.
He said 150,000 would be a “starting point” and can be decreased if there is no surge in cases in the coming days.
On Sunday, April 25, the Philippines had 8,162 new confirmed COVID-19 infections, bringing the total tally of people infected by the disease to 997,523.
The Health department reported 109 more deaths, bringing the country’s coronavirus death toll to 16,783. Reported recoveries increased by 20,509, raising the total to 903,665.
Of the total cases, 77,075 or 7.7 percent remain active, the lowest tally since March 21, when it was at 73,072.
The country is currently conducting an average of over 55,000 COVID-19 tests per day.
“We’re seeing still high hospitalization rate,” said David, although he added that the trend is “improving.”
He said hospitals in Metro Manila and nearby provinces will remain full for the “next few weeks possibly” as 10 percent of about 3,800 daily coronavirus cases require hospitalization.
“We will not get immediate reprieve in our hospital system …. One bottleneck is because we don’t have enough nurses right now,” he said
Hospitals’ COVID-19 bed capacity is 65 percent full in the capital region while intensive care units are 70 percent occupied, according to data from the Health department.
On Saturday, the Philippines logged 9,661 more COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 989,380, with 89,485 active infections.
