Relative Joy

You know that the data of the Health Agency is consistent (although not necessarily accurate) when they report lower numbers on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The data for Tuesday are collated from tests done on a Sunday. As we all know, not all testing facilities are open daily or 24/7 and are usually closed on Sundays and holidays. This is true as well in other parts of the world. Because the data in other countries in the world are mostly real time, you will notice that the global cases are always lower on Mondays and Tuesdays (because most of the European and North American countries are a day back with respect to Philippine time). The bottomline is – COVID19 testing is not a medical emergency.

The DOH reports 8,571 new cases or almost a 25 percent drop from the cases in the previous days. This is the usual trend prior to the surge. Tuesdays and Wednesdays would see around 20-25 percent less cases than the average high days from Thursday to Monday. There is a slowing down in the increase of cases but we need to work at bringing down the reproduction rate to not only 1.0 but less than 0.7 (and even lower) in order to provide some order to the chaos we are current experiencing.

There were 137 new deaths reported. Positivity rate is at 18.3 percent (appreciably lower than the previous days) but the hospitals are inundated with patients where ICUs are now filled to the brim in many public and private hospitals in the National Capital Region. Isolation facilities have been added in some cities, but not enough for the rising cases in those localities.

The distribution of the “ayudas” and reports of some disorganized vaccination sites should be addressed by the individual local government units because these propagate super spreader events. While the intention to provide assistance and immunization is vital, it should be a well thought of plan (I thought that there was enough time to practice this while they were all waiting for the arrival of the vaccines), ironically is such a mess in some areas with people jockeying to get vaccine slots or hoping to be part of the QSL (quick substitution list). These two super spreader events need to get addressed promptly in order not to affect the gains of the current quarantine status.

In todays data drop, NCR reported 3,949 new cases or 46 percent of the total cases in the country. Region IVA has 1562 cases and Central Luzon with 1,116 cases. These three regions alone account for 77 percent of the total cases in the country. Cagayan Valley hauled 556 new cases, while CAR contributed 282.

Quezon City owned 1,053 of the 3,949 cases in NCR or 27 percent of the total cases today. The City of Manila was in second with 596 cases. Pasay City, Marikina, Valenzuela, Malabon, Pateros, and Navotas reported fewer cases today than the previous days. Thirteen of 17 LGUs are among the top twenty cities with most cases.

On a provincial level, Cavite continued to lead with 539 cases followed by Rizal with 511. Pampanga, which is in GCQ status has 462 cases today, higher than erstwhile leader Bulacan that reported 397 cases which is in MECQ status.