NCR's COVID-19 growth rate down to 5% —OCTA

The one-week growth rate of COVID-19 infections in the National Capital Region (NCR) has decreased to 5%, independent monitoring group OCTA Research said Wednesday.

In a tweet, OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David said that NCR’s growth rate as of Tuesday, August 9, was at 5% after logging 828 new COVID-19 cases.

This is down from the 14% growth rate recorded in the NCR on August 2.

Meanwhile, NCR's reproduction number — or the number of people infected by one case — also went down to 1.17 as compared to the 1.24 recorded last week.

Aside from these, NCR’s one-week positivity rate — or the percentage of people found positive for COVID-19 among the total number of individuals tested — also decreased from 17.4% on August 6 to 15.9% on August 9.

“This once again gives us hope that the peak of the wave in the NCR may occur by next week (no guarantees, of course),” David said.

He said Monday that the COVID-19 wave in the country was lasting longer than expected and could continue until the “ber” months.

David also noted that NCR’s seven-day COVID-19 case average slightly increased to 1,275. It now has an average daily attack rate (ADAR) of 8.85 per 100,000 population.

ADAR pertains to the incidence showing the average number of new cases in a period per 100,000 people.

NCR’s healthcare utilization rate was at 35.7%, while its intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy slightly went up to 31%.

“The trends need to be consistent for about a week before we can confidently say there is a downward trend,” David said.

The Philippines logged 2,618 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing its active caseload to 36,666. —KBK, GMA News