Rest of NCR still at ‘high risk’ for COVID infection
BY GERARD NAVAL and JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
MANILA and the Camanava area in Metro Manila are now classified as “moderate risk” for COVID-19 infection, the OCTA Research group said yesterday.
Camanava is composed of the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela.
The rest of Metro Manila (National Capital Region) remained under the “high risk” classification, OCTA fellow Guido David said in social media post.
OCTA on Wednesday said it is expecting Metro Manila to be under moderate risk by next week.
Data showed that the five NCR cities have negative growth rates, led by Navotas (-77%), Caloocan (-72%), Malabon (-71%), Valenzuela (-68%), and Manila (-67%).
The five LGUs also have “very low” reproduction rates — with Malabon 0.45, Navotas 0.46, Caloocan 0.50, Manila 0.50, and Valenzuela 0.61.
But the five still have “high” average daily attack rates (ADARs) per 100,000 population, with Manila at 24.81, Valenzuela at 22.14, Malabon at 21.44, Navotas at 16.63, and Caloocan at 14.38.
Of the five cities, Manila has the highest seven-day average cases with 479, followed by Caloocan 247, Valenzuela 149, Malabon 85, and Navotas 45.
Healthcare utilization rate in four of the cities are considered “low,” with Valenzuela 39%, Manila 36%, Malabon 36%, and Caloocan 32%. Navotas has a “very low” healthcare utilization rate, at 7 percent.
Despite the further improvement in the NCR, David said there is still no room for complacency.
“We cannot let our guards down. Let’s continue to follow health protocols and stay safe,” said David.
Meanwhile, five areas with increasing number of COVID cases were placed by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) under Alert Level 3, effective today to February 15.
These are Palawan, Camiguin, Davao Occidental, Dinagat Islands, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu, said Cabinet Secretary and acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said.
The IATF has yet to announce the alert level for February for the NCR and 50 other areas and provinces that are under Alert Level 3 until January 31, as well as for Kalinga, Ifugao, Mountain Province, and Northern Samar that are under Alert Level 4 until the end of the month.
At least 600 additional cases of the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of COVID-19 were detected by the Department of Health and the Philippine Genome Center (PGC).
PGC executive director Dr. Cynthia Saloma said the Omicron variant has been the predominant lineage in the country since the start of the year.
“Starting third week of December, we have seen a very sharp rise in the cases with the Omicron lineage. By the time we entered 2022, almost 100 percent of sequenced cases are Omicron,” she said.
“We see the pattern in the rest of the country, that if ever we see the Delta variant, there are only very few,” she added.
The DOH said of the latest 677 samples sequenced by the PGC, 618 (91.29%) were Omicron variant cases, bringing the total number of confirmed Omicron variant cases at 1,153.
“The 618 Omicron variant cases were composed of 497 local cases and 121 returning overseas Filipinos,” said the DOH.
Of the 497 local cases, the indicated addresses of the cases were in the National Capital Region with 238 cases, Calabarzon 71 cases, Ilocos Region and Western Visayas with 30 cases each, Eastern Visayas 28, Central Luzon 27, Central Visayas 20, Cagayan Valley 19, Cordillera Administrative Region 13, Davao 10, Soccsksargen six, Bicol Region and Mimaropa with two cases each, and Northern Mindanao with one case.
The DOH said both original Omicron lineage and its sub-lineages, BA.1 and BA.2, have been detected in the country.
It said the earliest detection of the BA.2 sub-lineage was back on Dec. 31, 2021, and has since been found in the majority of Omicron cases in the latest batch.
“The DOH shall continue to investigate why BA.2 has become more prevalent than BA.1,” it said.
The health department also said that, based on the case line list, 13 cases are still active, two cases have died, 560 cases have been tagged as recovered, while there are 43 cases whose outcomes are still being verified.
The DOH has recorded five deaths among the Omicron cases.
On the Delta variant (B.1.617.2), the DOH said there were 35 cases detected in the latest batch of whole genome sequencing, of which 26 were local cases and nine were returning Filipinos.
Based on the case line list, one case has died, 30 have been tagged as recovered, while there are four cases whose outcomes are still being verified.
This brings the total number of confirmed Delta variant cases to 8,647.
