Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 27) — The OCTA Research Team said the surge in the COVID-19 reproduction rate in the National Capital Region has slowed down, but said it should not be seen as a reason to celebrate.
On Sunday, Prof. Guido David said the reproduction number (Ro) has gone down “to about 0.95, from about 1.12 a week ago.”
Earlier this month, OCTA said Metro Manila’s reproduction rate for the novel coronavirus has breached the threshold of 1, a sign that more people are being infected.
The reproduction rate refers to the average number of people that can be infected by a person in a susceptible population.
OCTA said the lower number reported on Sunday was a welcome development, but the public must still be on alert.
“It must be noted that reporting delays and testing centers closing for the holidays may cause these numbers to increase once more date comes in. On Dec. 25, the number of tests reported was only 38% of its average value,” it said.
As of publishing, data from the Department of Health shows that COVID-19 cases in the country have reached 469,005. Johns Hopkins University’s COVID tracker says there are over 80 million cases worldwide.
