By Ma. Teresa Montemayor | Philippine News Agency
The country’s positivity rate, or the number of people testing positive for COVID-19, has decreased to 5.6% as of July 15.
Over Twitter on Saturday night, July 16, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David noted the figure was a 0.8%-decline from last week’s (July 8) 6.4%.
“The Department of Health (DOH) reported 283 new cases, two deaths, 431 recoveries. About 56 of the new cases are from the National Capital Region, projecting 200 to 300 new cases the next day (July 16),” he said.
To date, the country’s overall tally of COVID-19 infections has reached 4,169,644 with 5,879 active cases.
The total number of COVID-19 deaths stands at 66,510.
The DOH’s latest bio-surveillance report showed 850 samples were sequenced on June 30Â to July 7 by the Philippine Genome Center. It logged that 92% of cases were XBB types.
“The XBB 2.3 or Acrux is the most dominant nationwide [at] 30% followed by XBB 1.16 or Arcturus at 24%,” David said.
The two were followed by XBB 1.9.1 or Hyperion at 16% or 135 cases; XBB 1.5 at 8% or 65 cases; XBB 1.9.2 at 4% or 35 cases; and BA 2.3.20 at 2% or 20 cases.
Meantime, the remaining 11% or 90 cases were other XBB types.