THE average daily coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines continued its climb during the month of March, based on the latest case bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH).
The bulletin showed an average of 167 cases daily for the period of March 13 to 19, or 1,171 infections in the past seven days.
The number is 19 percent higher than cases reported from March 6 to 12, which was at
140 cases daily.
The DOH said there were six additional severe and critical cases during the past week, and 63 deaths.
The health department said there are currently 368 severe and critical cases in the country, as of March 19, of which 272 are occupying ICU beds.
The number of occupied ICU beds account for the 13.3 percent of the 2,040 total nationwide.
On the other hand, there are 2,853 patients who occupying COVID-19 beds, which is 17 percent of the 16,735 total beds allocated nationwide.
In a social media post, the independent research group OCTA said the positivity rates
of the National Capital Region (NCR) and 12 provinces have gone up between March 11 and 18.
The positivity rate in NCR increased to 3.2 percent on March 18, from 2.2 percent on March 11.
OCTA fellow Guido David said the 12 provinces with higher positivity rates are Bulacan (1% to 1.3%), Cavite (2.9% to 3.5%), Cebu (1.3% to 2.7%), Davao del Sur (5.2% to 5.7%), Misamis Oriental (11.1% to 17.1%), Negros Occidental (0.9% to 1.4%), South Cotabato (10.5% to 13.2%), Aklan (10.3% to 18.8%), Camarines Sur (7.1% to 10.4%), La Union (0.5% to 3%), Oriental Mindoro (0% to 3.8%), and Zamboanga del Sur (0.9% to 1.3%).
On the other hand, eight provinces saw their respective positivity rates drop in the past seven days. These are Batangas (2.9% to 1.7%), Laguna (2.2% to 1.7%), Pampanga (2.2% to 2%), Bataan (2.5% to 1.6%), Benguet (2.9% to 2.3%), Isabela (0.8% to 0.4%), Palawan (10.9% to 5.3%), and Rizal (6% to 4.3%).
The positivity rates of two provinces remained unchanged over the past week – Iloilo (1.2%) and Pangasinan (2.5%).
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.
Positivity rate is the percentage of people, who test positive for the virus, out of the overall number of those who have been tested.
