THE nationwide positivity rate for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) slightly decreased to 3.3 percent during the weekend, the independent monitoring group OCTA Research said yesterday.
OCTA Research fellow Guido David said their monitoring and data showed the country’s positivity rate — or the percentage of people found positive for the novel coronavirus among the total number of individuals tested — went down overnight from 3.4 percent on Friday to 3.3 percent on Saturday.
The Department of Health (DOH) recorded 169 new COVID cases in the country, with nine deaths, including two in the National Capital Region, and 177 recoveries on March 18.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the Philippines has recorded 4,078,660 COVID cases, while deaths were placed at 66,256 and recoveries at 4,003,117.
The new cases brought to 9,270 the active cases nationwide.
“Of these, 41 cases are in NCR and 27 in Davao del Sur. Projecting 150-200 new cases on March 19, 2023,” David said in a Tweet.
David said Metro Manila remains the region with the most cases in the last 14 days with 548, followed by Davao Region with 283, Calabarzon with 227, Soccsksargen with 182, and Northern Mindanao with 158.
“The 7-day positivity rate in NCR has been rising. It was 3 percent on March 15, 2023, up from 2.1 percent on March 8. At this time, I expect it to increase further but not to the levels seen in 2022,” David added. — Ashzel Hachero
