THE seesawing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case trend in the country continued last week as the number of new cases reported daily over the past seven days dropped anew based on the weekly report of the Department of Health (DOH).
The department’s COVID-19 case bulletin showed an average of 1,714 cases daily for the period of October 17 to 23, or a total of 11,995, which is 22 percent lower than cases reported from October 10 to 16.
This comes after the period of October 10 to 16 saw an increase of 7 percent in average daily cases from the previous week.
The period of October 3 to 9, meanwhile, saw a 10 percent drop in average daily cases compared to the prior week.
The DOH bulletin said there were four additional severe and critical case during the past week, and 272 deaths.
There are currently 650 severe and critical cases in the country, as of October 23.
Of the total severe and critical cases, the report showed that 581 of them are occupying ICU beds, which is 23.1 percent of the 2,520 total nationwide.
On the other hand, there are 5,666 COVID-19 patients occupying COVID-19 beds, which is 26.4 percent of the 21,474 total beds allocated in all hospitals in the country.
POSITIVITY RATES
Amid the shifting case trend, the independent OCTA Research yesterday said 19 areas in the country, including Metro Manila, remain to have “high” to “very high” positivity rates.
In a social media post, OCTA said seven areas registered very high positivity rates, while 12 others are under high classification rates, as of October 22.
Those with very high positivity rates are Tarlac (50.6%), Camarines Sur (35.7%), Misamis Oriental (23.2%), Rizal (21.1%), La Union (20.9%), Isabela (20.7%), and South Cotabato (20.6%).
Among the seven areas, Isabela, La Union, and Misamis Oriental shifted from high to very high classifications.
On the other hand, areas that have high positivity rates are Laguna (19.4%), Cavite (18.8%), Pampanga (18.1%), Bataan (16.5%), Zambales (16.5%), Pangasinan (15.6%), Bulacan (15.4%), Iloilo (15.2%), Davao del Sur (14.2%), Cagayan (13.6%), National Capital Region (12.3%), and Batangas (10.5%).
Of the 12 areas, Cavite, Laguna, and Zambales went from very high to high, while Cagayan shifted from “moderate” to high.
The OCTA said Negros Occidental (10%), Cebu (8.5%), and Benguet (7%) are at moderate level positivity rates.
Benguet dropped from high to moderate.
The World Health Organization has set a threshold of 5 percent for the positivity rate indicator.
On Sunday, OCTA fellow Guido David noted how the presence of multiple variants and subvariants have made it more challenging to project COVID-19 waves and surges.
