CORONAVIRUS disease (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines continue to surge and is now averaging over 1,700 per day, the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday reported in its weekly case bulletin.
The DOH said infections increased by 31 percent to an average of 1,773 cases daily for the period of May 8 to 14, or 12,414 during the seven-day period.
There were 1,352 cases daily during the period of May 1 to 7.
The DOH said there were 53 additional severe and critical cases during the past week, but no deaths were reported.
There are currently 437 severe and critical COVID cases in the country, as of May 14, of which 394 patients are occupying ICU beds. Some 3,791 patients that are occupying COVID-19 beds.
As the DOH gave details of the spike, the independent OCTA Research group reported an increase in COVID-19 positivity rates, with Aklan registering “very high” and 14 other areas, including the National Capital Region (NCR), staying at “high” classification rates.
OCTA Research said Aklan has a very high positivity rate of 56.9 percent, as of May 13. This is up from the 41.7 high positivity rate Aklan had last May 6.
Metro Manila still has a high positivity rate of 25.4 percent, as well as the provinces of Camarines Sur (46.5%), Rizal (44.4%), Quezon (42.7%), Cavite (36.9%), Isabela (36.6%), Batangas (33.7%), Laguna (29.9%), Oriental Mindoro (29.5%), Bulacan (25.2%), Pampanga (24.8%), Leyte (21%), Benguet (20.3%), and Bataan (20.2%).
Meanwhile, OCTA said having “moderate” positivity rates are La Union (19.6%), Palawan (19.2%), Pangasinan (18.2%), Negros Occidental (18%), Misamis Oriental (16.6%), South Cotabato (15.8%), Cagayan (14.7%), Zamboanga del Sur (14.5%), Tarlac (14.2%), Cebu (13.7%), Zambales (13.4%), Iloilo (12.4%), Davao del Sur (7.7%), and Surigao del Norte (7.3%).
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.
