MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network): Metro Manila’s new Covid-19 cases per week increased by 56%, from 264 new cases on Nov 24 to 411 cases on Dec 1, OCTA Research fellow Guido David said on Friday (Dec 2).
David added that Metro Manila’s Covid-19 positivity rate also increased from 9.4% on Nov 23 to 11.9% as of Nov 30.
“This rate of increase in the positivity rate in the NCR is around the same rate of increase during the Omicron BA.5 wave (from June) and the XBB (from September). This projects to a December BQ.1 wave similar to the toe BE.5 and XBB waves,” David pointed out in a Twitter post.
The Department of Health has previously reported a total of 14 cases of the BQ.1 variant, and it was described by DOH officer-in-charge Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire as “more transmissible and highly immune-evasive compared to the other sub-variants of Omicron.”
David also stated that the reproduction number has increased, from 1.11 on Nov 21 to 1.32 on Nov 28. The average daily attack is also at 2.85 per 100,000 people.
The healthcare utilisation rate is low, said David, despite a slight increase from 26% on Nov 23 to 28% on Nov 30.
