The daily positivity rate or percentage of individuals who tested positive is 11.8% based on 31,222 tests on June 20. The DOH will still update the figure though it is far from the rate of below 5% recommended by the World Health Organization. Experts said high rates may mean high transmission and that there may be cases that have yet to be detected.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 22) — The country tallied 3,666 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 1,367,894, the Department of Health said on Tuesday.
The number excludes data from 12 laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time.
The death toll is 23,809 or 1.74% of the case count after 60 more people lost their lives to the disease.
Active cases or currently sick patients are at 52,696 or 3.9% of the COVID-19 total with 91% experiencing mild symptoms, 4.2% without symptoms, 2% with severe symptoms, 1.4% in critical condition and 1.4% in moderate condition.
There are 1,291,389 recoveries or 94.4% of the number of cases after 6,810 more people were cleared of the coronavirus.
The DOH said it reclassified 56 survivors into fatalities after validation and removed 11 duplicates, including eight recoveries.
The 12 laboratories that failed to submit their reports contributed an average of 3% of samples tested and 3.1% of positive individuals in the last 14 days, the department added.
Independent research group OCTA said cases in the country have decreased by 8% from a daily average of 6,578 infections the previous week to an average of 6,027 per day from June 15 to 21.
The reproduction number or the number of people who can be infected by a single case in a susceptible population is 0.95. The lower the reproduction number means fewer people are contracting the virus after coming in contact with a COVID-19 case.
In the regions
In Metro Manila, the number of new cases continued to decrease to an average of 700 per day – a 15% drop from the previous week. The average daily attack rate or the number of those who have gone ill after a COVID-19 exposure is 5.07 per a population of 100,000. An attack rate of less than 5 is considered “moderate low” risk. Health officials calculate the attack rate by dividing the number of new cases in a two-week period by the population of an area.
The positivity rate in Metro Manila is 7% with a 35% hospital bed occupancy rate, 42% intensive care unit utilization rate, and 31% mechanical ventilator occupancy which are all within “safe levels”, said OCTA.
Navotas City registered the lowest attack rate at 1.28, which means it is close to getting classified as a low-risk area. An area is considered low-risk if it has an attack rate of less than 1.
OCTA marked Davao City, Bacolod, Iloilo City, Cagayan De Oro, and Tacloban as areas of concern. There were high hospital bed occupancy rates (above 70%) in Iloilo City, Cagayan De Oro, Tuguegarao, Dasmariñas City in Cavite, Butuan, Tacloban, Roxas City in Capiz, and Polomolok in South Cotabato.
ICU utilization rates were at critical level or above 85% in Davao City, Iloilo City, Cagayan De Oro, General Santos, Tagum City in Davao Del Norte, Cotabato City, San Pablo City in Laguna, Koronadal City in South Cotabato, and Batangas City.
There was also a sharp increase in cases in Calumpit town in Bulacan with a spike of almost 200% from the previous week, OCTA reported.
