Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal under Alert Level 3 from Jan. 5 to 15, 2022 —Palace

The provinces of Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal will be placed under Alert Level 3 from January 5 to 15, 2022, due to a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, Malacañang announced on Tuesday.

"Due to a sharp increase of COVID-19 cases in the particular localities, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) approved yesterday, January 3, 2022, the recommendation of its sub-Technical Working Group on Data Analytics to escalate Bulacan, Cavite, and Rizal to Alert Level 3," acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles said.

"This shall take effect from January 5, 2022, until January 15, 2022," he added.

The government earlier placed Metro Manila under Alert Level 3 from January 3 and will last until January 15.

Under Alert Level 3, several establishments will be allowed to operate at 30% indoor venue capacity only for fully vaccinated individuals and 50% outdoor venue capacity, provided that all employees are fully vaccinated.

Face-to-face classes, contact sports, funfairs/perya, and casinos are among the activities and establishments that are prohibited under Alert Level 3.

Work at government offices is limited to 60% of their onsite capacity.

On Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) registered 4,084 additional COVID-19 infections, bringing the Philippines' total tally to 2,855,819.

Of the new infections, the DOH data showed that 4,057 occurred within 14 days from December 21, 2021 to January 3, 2022. The top regions with infections in the recent two weeks were Metro Manila with 2,831 or 70%, followed by Calabarzon with 571 or 14% and Central Luzon with 273 or 7%.

The Philippines' positivity rate rose to 20.7% with 18,587 total conducted tests. This is much higher than the World Health Organization standard of less than 5% positivity rate. If the rate is 5% or higher, it means there is a high transmission rate of the virus.

The number of new cases on Monday was also higher than the expected prediction of OCTA Research of 3,000 to 3,500 new infections.  —KBK, GMA News