THE Department of Health (DOH) yesterday said the average daily coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country continued its climb during the month of March.
The weekly COVID-19 case bulletin of the health department showed an average of 185 cases daily, or 1,298 cases for the period of March 20 to 26.
“This is 11 percent higher than cases reported from March 13 to 19,” said the DOH, noting there was only 167 cases during the period.
The latest bulletin showed there were 10 additional severe and critical cases during the past week, with 60 deaths reported.
The DOH said there are 307 severe and critical cases in the country, as of March 26, of which 285 are occupying ICU beds or 14 percent of the 2,041 total nationwide.
On the other hand, there are 2,690 patients occupying COVID-19 beds, or 16.5 percent of the 16,335 total COVID-19 beds allocated nationwide.
Meanwhile, the independent OCTA Research group reported the positivity rate in Misamis Oriental registered a “high” COVID-19 positivity rate of 26.8 percent over the last seven days, from the 17.1 percent medium rating the previous week.
In a social media post, OCTA fellow Guido David said Misamis Oriental was the lone province in the country to have registered a high positivity rate, as of March 25.
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.
OCTA said South Cotabato stayed at moderate level despite improving to 9.3 percent from 13.2 percent, while Davao del Sur slightly increased to 6 percent from 5.6 percent but stayed at moderate level.
The National Capital Region (NCR) remains to have “low” positivity rates at 3.2 percent.
Aside from Metro Manila, also with low positivity rates are Laguna (3.1%), Cebu (2.8%), Cavite (2.5%), Negros Occidental (2.3%), Pampanga (2%), Batangas (1.9%), Pangasinan (1.8%), Bulacan (1.7%), Iloilo (0.7%), and Zamboanga del Sur (0.7%).
