THE independent OCTA Research yesterday reported a slight uptick in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) positivity rate of the National Capital Region (NCR), a first since mid-December 2022.
In a social media post, OCTA fellow Guido David said the “NCR positivity rate inched back up to 2.4% (as of January 27) from 2.0% just a day ago.”
“A week ago (January 20), it was at 2.5%,” he also said.
David said OCTA will continuously monitor the movement in Metro Manila “to see if the trend continues upward.”
Last December 14, OCTA started observing a downward trend in NCR’s positivity rate. Since then, the numbers have continuously gone down, with the positivity rate at the capital region reaching 5 percent last January 10.
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.
While the trend in Metro Manila’s starts to tilt upward again, infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante yesterday said that while COVID-19 is still a global concern, it is no longer a public health emergency.
In a television interview, Solante said there is no more reason for the WHO to maintain the state of global public health emergency, which was declared exactly three years ago today, January 30.
Solante pointed out there are already numerous tools to combat COVID-19, mainly vaccines. “We have all these interventions now compared to three years ago. We already have a lot of these antiviral agents that can really prevent severe infections,” he said.
Solante, however, said COVID-19 must remain a concern for everyone, especially for the vulnerable sector because “the vulnerable population will always be the target of higher risk of severe cases. This is where we should focus on protecting: the elderly, and those who have comorbidities and immunocompromised.
“We must continue to adhere to the health protocols, as face masks are still an important protection, especially for the vulnerable population,” Solante said, adding: “We need to have more accessibility to the antiviral agents, which are so important particularly to the vulnerable population.”
