The OCTA Research group is seeing a continuous decline in the number of COVID-19 cases in NCR Plus (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal).
In an interview on Monday (June 14), OCTA Research fellow Dr. Butch Ong said that COVID-19 transmission in NCR Plus is starting to come “under control.” He added that the reproduction number of the said areas has decreased to 1.02.
“We have sustained the downtrend ever since we had our heightened GCQ [general community quarantine]…Ito ay magandang senyales na ang ating transmission sa NCR Plus…it’s beginning to be under control already.”
Dr. Ong also said they can see the COVID-19 vaccine rollout’s effect on the number of patients being admitted in hospitals.
“Ang vaccine rollout ay nakakatulong din sa pagbaba ng ating number of new cases especially sa mga gumagamit ng ospital, sa mga naco-confine, dahil alam natin that vaccines can protect you against moderate to severe to critical COVID,” he said.
Moreover, based on the group’s data, the total number of new COVID-19 cases in NCR Plus has dropped from 94% from March 29 to April 4, to 27% from June 5 to 11.
Aside from this, the number of average daily new cases for the past week in Metro Manila is only over 800. This is reason for the OCTA to believe that NCR Plus can now be brought down to general community quarantine (GCQ).
“Mas [kailangang] higitan ang kanilang monitoring at kanilang pagsunod sa guidelines. Mas maging strikto ang mga safety officers. Maging strikto ang pag-check ng temperatures at pagkuha ng kanilang health declaration,” Ong reiterated.
Report from Mark Fetalco/NGS-jlo
