For the fourth consecutive week, the number of daily new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Quezon City has significantly dropped, according to latest data from an independent research group.
Latest report from OCTA Research indicated that the number of daily new cases based on onset, per data from the Department of Health (DOH), dropped from 438 on Aug. 8-14 to 334 on Aug. 15-21.
From Aug. 22-28, the number of daily new cases dipped further to 288, 250 from Aug. 29-Sept. 4 and 196 from Sept. 5 -11.
The figures are even lower based on data from the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU), going from 205 last Aug. 11-17 to 102 from Sept. 8-14.
“In a span of one month, we have managed to reduce the number of daily cases by 50 percent. This only shows that our efforts to control the spread of the virus are working,” said Mayor Joy Belmonte.
“Ngunit hindi pa rin tayo dapat maging kampante. Tuluy-tuloy lang ang ating mga pag-iingat para tuluyan nang mapigil ang pagkalat ng virus, lalo na sa pampublikong lugar, mga tahanan at trabaho,” Belmonte added.
The research group also noted another drop in Reproduction Number (Ro), or in the movement of the virus, from 0.92 on Aug. 31-Sept. 6 to 0.79 on Sept.7-20, which is lower compared to the Ro of the National Capital Region (NCR) and the whole country.
Ro indicates how contagious an infectious disease is and its reproduction number. It also tells the average number of people who will contract a contagious disease from an infected person.
“The city must ramp up testing to reach the positivity rate of 10 percent.”
However, Dr. Ranjit Rye of OCTA Research said the city must ramp up testing to reach the positivity rate of 10 percent.
“As of now, the city has an 11-percent positivity rate. The more tests you conduct, the more we can go out of the uncertainty and the better for the city,” said Rye.
According to CESU head Dr. Rolly Cruz, the city is one of the most aggressive local governments when it comes to testing, with an average of 600-800 tests per day.
”It is a challenge for our community-based testing sites to do more tests since the national government, through testing czar Vince Dizon, has been actively helping us,” said Cruz.
Joseph Juico, head of the QC COVID-19 Task Force, stressed that intensified testing is a good complement to the city’s molecular laboratory, which can conduct 500 tests per day.
“We are slowly closing in on our target of 1,000 tests per day.”
“We are slowly closing in on our target of 1,000 tests per day,” Juico pointed out.
The city government recently announced its partnership with OCTA Research, an independent research group composed of scholars from the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo Tomas, to provide weekly and bi-monthly comprehensive reports on the COVID-19 trends in the city.
“Having OCTA Research as our partner gives credibility to our initiatives and data analytics. It helps us to surgically address flattening the curve,” Belmonte said.
She said Quezon City is using mathematical and scientific tools to better monitor the contagion of the disease and in turn calculate its initiatives against COVID-19.