BY ALEXANDRIA SAN JUAN
More people in Metro Manila are being infected with the virus which causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as experts noted an upward trend in the number of cases in the region over the past week.
In its latest monitoring report released on Tuesday, the OCTA Research Team also observed a spike in the reproduction number or “R-naught” in the National Capital Region (NCR) which has increased to 1.17.
OCTA earlier explained that a transmission rate above the critical level of 1 means the virus is spreading faster, while below 1 means local transmissions are being controlled.
According to OCTA, the last time the R-naught in NCR was above 1 was on December 21 at 1.02.
The R-naught remained below 1 throughout the holiday season as the daily new COVID-19 cases decreased to 295 from the average 500 before Christmas.
However, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said the decrease was only “artificial” as testing was reduced by more than 40 percent during the holidays due to closed testing centers.
With testing centers resuming normal operations this year, OCTA observed that the number of new cases in the capital region has increased to more than 400.
“There is a clear upward trend now, and if this upward trend continues, the local governments will need to implement measures to reverse this direction before the pandemic gets out of hand,” the group warned.
On the other hand, OCTA said that the positivity rate in NCR, or the share of tests that come back positive, remained at 4 percent over the past week, still below the 5 percent recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).