NCR positivity rate rises to 10.6% – OCTA

by Janvic Mateo Philstar.com

MANILA — The number of people testing positive for COVID-19 in the National Capital Region (NCR) further increased over the past week, according to monitoring conducted by the OCTA Research group.

Citing data from the Department of Health, OCTA fellow Guido David said the region’s seven-day positivity rate increased from 7.3 percent on April 16 to 10.6 percent on April 23.

The positivity rate measures the percentage of positive results out of the total number of RT-PCR tests conducted.

The World Health Organization recommends a positivity rate of five percent or below to effectively manage the pandemic.

As of Monday, April 24, David said the nationwide positivity rate is at 10 percent.

In a post on his Twitter account, he noted that the NCR has an average of only 3,120 RT-PCR tests per day, down from around 11,000 in April 2022.

Official government data only take into account RT-PCR tests and not the antigen tests that have become a common way of testing for COVID-19 infection.

While this means that cases could be higher than the official count, David earlier said that looking at positivity rates and other indicators could still show trends in the number of cases.

Over the past weeks, positivity rates in various areas have seen a steady rise.

On Monday, the DOH reported 429 new cases, with 180 in