Over 17% positivity rate
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 3) — The country recorded 6,879 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, bringing the total to 1,612,541, according to the Department of Health.
Of the case total, 3.9% or 63,137 are active cases or currently ill with 94% experiencing mild symptoms, 2.1% with severe symptoms, 1.46% in moderate condition, 1.3% without symptoms, and 1.2% in critical condition.
The death toll rose to 28,141 or 1.75% of the COVID-19 count with 48 more fatalities while 6,337 got better, pushing the survivor count to 1,521,263 or 94.3% of the case tally.
The DOH said the case numbers are relatively lower due to low submission of samples on Aug. 1. Ten laboratories were not counted in the total — one was not operational on Aug. 1 while nine did not submit their reports on time. The past four days, the daily infection tally had been over 8,000.
The DOH said it removed 100 duplicate cases including 98 recoveries. It also reclassified 30 survivors — 12 into active cases and 18 into deaths — after validation.
The DOH added that the ten laboratories not counted in the total, contributed an average of 3.7% of samples tested and 3.6% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
The positivity rate or percentage of people who tested positive is again the highest in over three months at 17.5% based on 37,302 tests reported on August 1.
It is the highest since April 26 when the figure was 17.8%.
The country broke the same record only four days ago when the rate was at 16.2%.
For reference, an area has inadequate testing efforts when its positivity rate is above 20% while the benchmark for adequate testing is below 3%. This is based on the metric of US nonprofit Covid Act Now, which the OCTA research team uses as reference for its recommendations. The current rate puts the country in the “high” risk category.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization states the positivity rate should be below 5% to say the infection is under control.
Community transmission
With the recent rise in COVID-19 cases, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the department is now assuming there is community transmission of the feared Delta variant, although there is still no sufficient evidence to say so.
There are 216 Delta variant cases reported in the Philippines so far, 17 of which are active.
However, the DOH said it is waiting for more data from the Philippine Genome Center to confirm community transmission, or the spread of the disease in an area where there is no known linkage among individuals with the highly contagious variant.
The DOH also flagged Metro Manila, Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Visayas, and Northern Mindanao as regions under “high” risk classification due to upticks in their average daily attack rate.
Vergeire said more than 4,000 nurses have been deployed to hospitals and facilities in the country to help address the increasing number of infections.
