The Health Agency announces 181 new cases with 3 added deaths today, Friday the 13th. More than 43% of today’s cases are from the National Capital Region.

Of the 79 cases in NCR, two LGUs posted double digits – Quezon City 15 and Manila 14. Only one LGU had zero COVID19. This was Pateros.

All other provinces reported single digits today.

The zero COVID19 deaths streak is broken today with the Health Agency reporting 13 deaths. There are 139 new cases added, with NCR owning 48 (35%) of the total.

No province or LGU including every LGU in the NCR reported double digits. All reported single digit numbers or zero covid. In NCR, six LGUs report zero COVID19 cases. They are: Valenzuela, Muntinlupa, Malabon, Navotas, San Juan, and Pateros.

Positivity rate for the 7-day average stands at 1.2%.

The Health Agency announces 109 new cases and for the 7th day in a row had zero deaths. The NCR had 52 (48%) of the cases today.

In Mega Manila, only once LGU announced double digits – Makati City with 10 cases. While the rest had single digit numbers, six LGUs reported zero covid. They were: Valenzuela, Muntinlupa, Marikina, Malabon, Navotas and Pateros.

No province had double digits today.

The 7-day positivity rate is up at 1.2%. Note that the data for today is based on Monday, May 9 when the country held its national election. The numbers are expectedly low.

The Health Agency announces 127 new cases and for the 6th consecutive day, 0 deaths. The other good news is that the 7-day positivity rate drops to 1.0% (and hopefully stays that way or drops to <1.0%).

The NCR owned 41 (3%) of today’s numbers with only Quezon City reporting double digits with 11 cases. Five LGUs reported zero covid in Mega Manila. They were: Pasig, Valenzuela, Mandaluyong, Malabon and San Juan.

No province outside of NCR had double digit numbers today.

The official weekly report of the Health Agency announces 1,124 new cases for the week of May 2-8, 2022. That means a 20% decline in cases from the previous week as the 7-day average drops to 161 cases/day. While there are only 42 deaths reported (8 being recent), majority were backlogs. The bad news is that there were 14 severe and critical cases (1.33% of the new cases) this week.

Non ICU bed utilization drops from 16.3% the previous week to 15.4% this week (May 2-8). ICU Utilization is up from 16.1 to 16.8% with cases up from 456 to 474 this week. Severe and critical admissions are down to 611 from a previous of 723 the week prior.

Vaccination coverage is at 76.04% for fully vaccinated as more than 525,000 were added this week, while the A2 (senior citizen) coverage is up at 77.12%. There were 223,224 individuals that availed of a booster/additional dose the week of May 2-8, 2022.

The Health Agency announces 182 new cases and the fifth straight day of zero deaths from COVID19. NCR had 78 cases, accounting for 43% of today’s numbers.

One LGU in NCR posted double digits – City of Manila with 15 cases. All the rest are at single digits with three reporting zero covid. These three were: Valenzuela, Pateros and San Juan.

Outside of NCR, Cavite and Rizal were the only provinces with double digits. Cavite had 10, while Rizal had 14.

Positivity rate is at 1.1% for the start of the week.

The Health Agency announces 152 cases and 0 deaths (for the 4th consecutive day) with NCR accounting only for 29% of the total cases today.

Only Manila had double digits at 11, and while the rest had single digits, 5 LGUs reported zero covid. They were: Valenzuela, Malabon, San Juan, Pateros and Navotas.

Outside of NCR, the provinces with double digits were: Cavite 12, and Pampanga 14 (4 province, 11 Angeles City).

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

While the PH continued to show triple digit numbers in the upper 100s, we have reached the trough already as evident from the effective reproduction rate that rose from 0.9 to 0.98 this week. This means that the next few days, the daily COVID19 cases will play around the range of 150-250. Which isn’t really a good sign because we need to keep our eyes on the Rt. Any movement above 1.0 means that we are bound to see a steady rise (or jump) in COVID19 cases anytime soon.

The 7-day average as of May 7 stood at 176 new daily cases. Or around 1.62 cases per million population. But the reproduction rate is up at 0.98 (+/- 0.05), which means that there is no significant change in the numbers from the previous days. The good news is that the Health Agency has reported zero deaths for three consecutive days, bringing the 7-day average for deaths down to 14 newly announced deaths due to COVID19/day. (Note that deaths is a lagging parameter.*)

Compared to the other East Asian nations, it is Taiwan that is now seeing the brunt of the omicron surge. Unlike China which has a zero COVID tolerance policy, the vaccination success of Taiwan has limited their deaths and overwhelming health facilities in spite of the surge.

In terms of per capita (cases per million population), Taiwan now take the lead from South Korea with more than 1000 cases per million population.

We expect the cases in Taiwan to continue its upward trajectory in the next few weeks as their Rt remains very high. As a matter of fact, with the current numbers, Taiwan has now breached the 40,000 daily cases and is poised to have cases ranging from 60,000-90,000 this coming week.

Singapore is the only other country that has an Rt >1.0 and has plateaued at an average of 3000 new daily cases for the past week. The best performing country which will have the potential to see even lower cases are Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia in the coming week.

The Health Agency announces 175 new cases and for the third day in a row reports 0 deaths. NCR owned 45% (79) of the cases today.

Two LGUs in NCR continued to report double digits – City of Manila 19 and Quezon City 13. The rest report single digits and three LGUs had zero covid. Those with zero covid were: Muntinlupa, Malabon and Pateros.

Only one province reported double digits – Cavite with 13.

The 7-day positivity rate as of today stands at 1.2%.

The Health Agency announces 150 new cases today. It is the second consecutive day that we have ZERO deaths reported. The National Capital Region reports almost 50% of the cases for today. As the national election draws near, please make sure to follow minimum health standards in the polling places.

NCR had 73 cases – with the City of Manila leading the pack with 13 and Parañaque and Quezon City with 11 apiece. While most of the LGUs in NCR reported single digit numbers, two LGUs – Valenzuela and Pateros – had no covid cases.

Surprisingly, the province outside of NCR that had double digits was Bataan with 15 cases. All others had almost zero to single digit cases.

There were 168 new cases announced by the Health Agency today. No deaths were added to the tally.

As the number of cases lessen, the NCR will carry the burden of the daily numbers. Today, NCR owned 43.5% of the cases with Quezon City accounting for 14 and Makati 11. While the rest had single digits, six LGUs in Mega Manila report zero covid. These LGUs with zero covid were: Las Piñas, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Navotas, San Juan and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, only ONE province had double digits – Cavite – with 10 cases.

The Health Agency announces 159 new cases but added 27 deaths today.

The NCR owned 35% of the deaths with 55 cases.

Only one LGU in NCR continued to report double digits – City of Manila with 10 cases today. While the others had single digit numbers, 5 LGUs had zero covid. They were: Valenzuela, Muntinlupa, Marikina, Navotas and Pateros.

Outside of NCR, the province of Cavite led with the most number of cases at 16. The only other province with double digits today, aside from Cavite, was Isabela with 12 cases.