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Almost all provinces see downward trend in COVID-19 cases: OCTA
Almost all provinces see downward trend in COVID-19 cases: OCTA
Jaehwa Bernardo,
ABS-CBN News
Published Feb 06, 2022 10:06 AM PHT
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Updated Feb 06, 2022 10:25 AM PHT
Ilonggo Devotees attend Mass at the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral National Shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Candles. Catholic devotees believe that lighting "perdon" candles offered to the Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria creates miracles in their lives through answered prayers. Arnold Almacen, Iloilo City Mayor's Office
MANILA — Almost all provinces in the Philippines are seeing a downward trend in new COVID-19 cases, pandemic monitor OCTA Research Group said Sunday.
In an interview with ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo, OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David said only a few provinces have recently reported positive growth rates in COVID-19 cases.
"Maybe less than 5 [provinces], at maliliit lang ito. So, ibig sabihin, nag-peak na sila," he said.
(Perhaps less than 5 provinces are still reporting positive growth rates but these are small, which means their cases have already peaked.)
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"I would say almost all the provinces are now on a downward trajectory," he said.
The country's 7-day average of new cases is now at 8,400, but this could decrease to 5,000 next week, and about 1,000 to 2,000 by the end of February, David said.
"We're getting close to the situation na nakita natin November to December last year, na mababa talaga iyong bilang ng kaso," he said.
(We're getting close to the situation that we saw in November to December last year, when the number of new cases were really low.)
OCTA is hoping that the Philippines' positivity rate will be down to "pre-omicron" surge level by March, David said.
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On Saturday, the country's positivity rate stood at 23.3 percent, which ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said was the lowest in more than a month or since January 1.
The number, however, is still far from the World Health Organization's benchmark of 5 percent, which suggests that the spread of COVID-19 in an area is under control.
David said the actual number of COVID-19 cases could be "about two times higher," down from "10 times higher" at the height of the surge that started in late December, fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant.
He reminded the public to continue wearing masks to avoid catching the virus.
As of Saturday, the Philippines has a total of 3,601,471 COVID-19 cases, of which 136,436 are active infections.
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More than 59.4 million people in the country have been fully vaccinated against the disease, while over 60.5 others have received their first dose, data from the Department of Health showed.
Some 7.7 million booster doses have also been administered.
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