THE independent OCTA Research group yesterday said the province of Isabela is currently seeing “very high” positivity rates while 16 other areas, including the National Capital Region (NCR), continue to see “high” probability of testing positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Positivity rate is the percentage of people who test positive for the virus out of the overall number of those who have been tested.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has set the threshold for positivity rate for COVID-19 at 5 percent, which means the transmission is under control.
Based on the latest OCTA report, the positivity rate of Isabela surged to 67.4 percent as May 20, which is way much higher than its May 13 positivity rate, which was at 36.6 percent.
The group said Metro Manila has a high positivity rate of 25.7 percent, which is slightly higher than last week’s 25.4 percent positivity rate.
Also seeing high positivity rates are the provinces of Camarines Sur (47.9%), Quezon (43.8%), Cavite (36.6%), Batangas (36.1%), Rizal (36%), Laguna (35.7%), Oriental Mindoro (33.3%), Zambales (26.6%), Pampanga (26.2%), Benguet (24.7%), Bulacan (24%), Palawan (22.8%), Cagayan (21.6%), Bataan (21.4%), and La Union (21.1%)
The provinces of Pangasinan (15.5%) and Tarlac (15.4%), are currently with “moderate” positivity rates.
The latest OCTA report comes almost a week after the Department of Health (DOH) called for more responsible reporting regarding the COVID-19 positivity rates, saying that the regular updates have been causing undue stress and panic to the public.
After weeks of seeing an upward trend, the DOH said it recorded a 0.1 percent increase in the number of new cases during the week of May 15 to 21.
Based on the latest COVID-19 case bulletin, there was an average of 1,775 cases daily, or 12,426 infections, during the seven-day period.
There were 87 additional severe and critical cases during the past week, while 13 deaths were reported.
The DOH likewise said there are currently 486 severe and critical cases in the country, as of May 21, of which 389 are occupying ICU beds. The number of occupied ICU beds account for the 18.2 percent of the 2,134 total nationwide.
On the other hand, there are 4,211 patients occupying COVID-19 beds, which is 23 percent of the 18,321 total COVID-19 beds allocated nationwide.
