MORE than a month after Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, or collectively called the NCR Plus, were placed under strict home-stay regulation, the average number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases recorded daily and the healthcare utilization rate in the region have significantly dropped, health authorities said yesterday.
The independent OCTA Research Team reported that the average daily cases in the region is down to under 1,500, while the Department of Health said (DOH) said healthcare utilization rate in the metropolis has gone below 50 percent.
In its latest COVID-19 report, the OCTA said the average number of new cases per day in the NCR was 1,479 during the May 10 to 16 period, a 27 percent decrease from the 5,000 average cases per day during the peak days in April.
Over the same period, the OCTA said the reproduction number in the NCR was at 0.57.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the target is to maintain COVID-19’s reproduction rate at below 1.
The average daily attack rate (ADAR) in the National Capital Region (NCR) is also at 10.71 per 100,000.
To note, the DOH considers ADAR that is above 10 as high risk, while an ADAR below 10 is classified as moderate risk.
Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the healthcare utilization rate in Metro Manila has been reduced to 48 percent, which is way lower than the 70 percent hospital bed occupancy during the April surge.
“Our current healthcare utilization rate in the National Capital Region is down to 48 percent. When we say that it is the over-all healthcare utilization, this includes the ICU utilization, isolation utilization, and the ward utilization,” Vergeire said in a virtual press briefing.
Vergeire said a utilization rate of less than 60 percent is already being safe.
Among ICU bed utilization, she said the number is already down to 61 percent, as compared to 88 percent during the peak of the pandemic in the NCR.
As to the temporary treatment and monitoring facilities, Vergeire said they have registered a 36 percent utilization rate.
The NCR Plus shifted to heightened general community quarantine status beginning May 15, after a strict two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from March 29 to April 11 and modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from April 12 to May 14.
