THE nationwide decline in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases is now “more defined,” the independent OCTA Research Group said yesterday, as it noted a dip in the country’s growth rate and reproduction number.
In a social media post, OCTA fellow Guido David said the situation in the country continues to improve as seen in recent days. “The downward trend is more defined now,” said David.
David said that as of September 28, new cases in the Philippines averaged 17,293 over the past seven days, which is a huge drop from the 20,218 cases during the period September 11 to 18.
The current growth rate, he also said, has gone down to negative 11 percent, as compared to the cases during the period of September 15 to 21.
David added that the reproduction number in the country has now decreased to 0.96.
The World Health Organization has said that the ideal threshold is one (1).
The OCTA member said the downward trend is primarily seen in the National Capital Region, which is the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
However, David noted that despite the general decline in COVID-19 cases, several provinces are still experiencing a surge in infections. He did not mention, though, the areas where surges have been reported.
Last Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that the Philippines is down to “moderate” risk classification from COVID-19.
VARIANTS
Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire yesterday said 339 new Delta variant cases have been detected by the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) to bring the total in the country to 3,366 cases.
“Out of the 748 samples sequenced, a total of 633 cases are identified with either a variant of concern or P.3,” said Vergeire.
“There are 339 of 45.3 percent Delta variant cases detected,” she added.
The latest genome sequencing also detected additional 186 (24.9%) Beta (South Africa) variant cases, 98 (13.1%) Alpha (UK) variant cases, 9 (1.2%) P.3 (Philippines) variant cases, and 1 Gamma (Brazil) variant case.
This brings the total number of Beta variant cases to 2,920; Alpha variant cases to 2,559; P.3 variant cases to 461; and Gamma variant cases to 3.
Among the 633 variant cases, the DOH noted that 609 are local cases and 17 are returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs). The remaining seven are still being verified if they are local cases or ROFs.
The DOH also noted that 616 of the newly reported variant cases have already recovered, 10 have died, five are active cases, and two still being verified of their clinical statuses.
Just last week, the DOH said that the Delta variant is now the most common lineage among sequenced samples nationwide.
