The daily positivity rate or rate of people who tested positive is 12.9% out of 52,066 tests done on May 13. According to the World Health Organization, the rate should be below 5% as high rates may mean high transmission.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 15) — The country’s COVID-19 death toll exceeded 19,000 after 93 more patients lost their lives to the disease, the Department of Health reported on Saturday.
The DOH case bulletin said the coronavirus has now killed a total of 19,051 patients – equivalent to 1.67% of the total number of cases.
The case count also rose to 1,138,187 after 6,739 more people got infected. Of this tally, 5% – or 56,709 people – are active cases or currently sick, with 93.4% experiencing mild symptoms, 2.2% without symptoms, 1.9% with severe symptoms, 1.4% in critical condition, and 1.17% in moderate condition.
Meanwhile, 8,952 more people recovered, raising the number of survivors to 1,062,427 – or 93.3% of the COVID-19 tally.
The DOH said it reclassified 36 survivors into fatalities and deleted 19 duplicates, including 12 recoveries. The total excludes data from nine laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time, the agency added.
In its latest report, the OCTA research team said the average number of cases per day in Metro Manila went down by 30% to 1,644 over the past week. The reproduction number – or number of people who can be infected by one case – also dropped to 0.57 while the positivity rate was down to 12%.
The cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Manila, and Navotas had lower average daily attack rates or the day-to-day increase or decrease of confirmed cases. The attack rates of each of the cities were now below 10 per a population of 100,000, which classifies them as “moderate risk,” according to OCTA. Meanwhile, the entire Metro Manila’s average attack rate also fell to below 12%.
Among Filipinos abroad, 26 new infections were detected, bringing the total to 18,607, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. The number of recoveries and the death toll remained at 11,369 and 1,162, respectively. There are also 6,076 patients still undergoing treatment.
From May 9 to 15, the country had a seven-day average of 6,191 new cases, which was 10% lower than the previous week, OCTA added. There were also 112 fatalities reported per day over the same period. The top five areas with the most new daily cases were all within NCR Plus – Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan, and Rizal – but they all showed a decrease in infections.
OCTA also flagged Palawan province’s 67% positivity rate, as well as significant increases in Zamboanga Del Sur, Misamis Oriental, Nueva Vizcaya, and South Cotabato.
