THE average daily coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines climbed by 10 percent in the past week, the weekly case bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH) showed yesterday.
The bulletin showed an average of 130 cases daily for the period of February 27 to March 5, or 913 in the last seven days.
The figure is higher than 10 percent than the 119 average daily cases for the period of February 20 to 26.
The DOH said there were no additional severe and critical cases during the past week but reported 56 deaths.
There are currently 395 severe and critical cases in the country, as of March 5, of which 263 are occupying ICU beds, or 13.3 percent of 1,978 ICU beds nationwide.
There are 2,840 patients occupying COVID-19 beds, which the DOH said is 16.8 percent of the 16,871 total beds allocated nationwide.
Meanwhile, the independent OCTA Research group said the National Capital Region (NCR) and six provinces in the country saw increasing positivity from February 25 and March 4.
OCTA fellow Guido David, in a social media post, said the positivity rate in Metro Manila slightly increased to 2 percent from 1.6 percent on February 25.
Other areas that saw higher positivity rates are Misamis Oriental (9.1% from 6.5%), Davao del Sur (4.9% from 4.1%), Bulacan (3.6% from 1.3%), Negros Occidental (2.2% from 0.8%), Pampanga (1.9% from 1.5%), and Cebu (1.5% from 0.8%).
On the other hand, David five provinces saw their positivity rates drop in the last seven days. These are South Cotabato (10.8% from 13%), Cavite (1.1% from 2.2%), Pangasinan (1% from 1.1%), Iloilo (0.8% from 1.1%), and Laguna (0.8% from 1.1%).
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.
