MANILA - Health care utilization in Metro Manila and nearby areas will remain high as daily COVID-19 cases are expected to rise in the bubble over the next few weeks, independent research group OCTA said Wednesday.

The capital region, home to a tenth of the country's population, was placed in a bubble under enhanced community quarantine, the strictest quarantine level, with Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite until April 11 to curb the surge of virus infections.

Metro Manila logged an average of 5,146 new COVID-19 cases from March 31 to April 6, with a one-week growth rate of 3 percent, according to OCTA.

Its reproduction number, or the number of people infected by a virus patient, decreased to 1.43 but testing only averaged 24,000 per day, OCTA said.

Testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon earlier claimed said country was conducting 50,000 daily coronavirus tests.

• Amid virus spike, daily COVID-19 testing is at 50,000, says official

"This means that we are not seeing the complete picture with respect to growth rate and trends, and once late data comes in this week, there will be some corrections in the findings," it said.

"These figures are still subject to correction factors pending late testing reports due to the recent Holy Week, where testing data decreased by 17 percent compared to the previous week."

The capital region's COVID-19 reproduction number was 1.53 as of Monday, OCTA Research fellow Guido David earlier said. It is expected to slow to 1.2 after 2 weeks of ECQ, he said.

David said it was "possible" that the NCR Plus bubble might ease into modified enhanced community quarantine by next week.

The group added that the positivity rate in Metro Manila remained at 25 percent, with slightly lower positivity rates observed in Pasay (17 percent), Manila (23 percent), Marikina (23 percent), and Makati (24 percent).

The Philippines as of Tuesday logged a record-high 382 deaths and 9,373 more coronavirus infections, bringing its total cases to 812,760.

It is expected to reach 1 million cases by end of the month, according to OCTA.

• Philippines' total COVID-19 cases may reach 1 million by end-April: OCTA

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