The Health Agency announces 1196 new cases with 12.5% positive rate. Note that the PCR tests done yesterday was just a little more than 10,000. There were 39 deaths added today – the highest daily deaths in the past month.

NCR was led by Quezon City with 106 cases followed by Manila with 47, Pasig 41, Makati 38, Taguig 37, Muntinlupa 32, Caloocan 30, Parañaque 27, Mandaluyong 23, Las Piñas and Marikina with 21 each, Valenzuela 16 and Malabon 10.

In the provinces, the following reported 30 cases and above: Cavite 75, Laguna 53, Rizal 66, Bulacan 52, Cebu 35 and Isabela 30.

The Health Agency announces 1306 new cases with 12.5% positive rate and 27 added deaths today. The NCR owned 513 of the cases (39.3%).

Leading the NCR was Quezon City, which had triple digits at 132. This was followed by Manila with 74. Other LGUs with double digits in Mega Manila were: Makati 44, Parañaque 36, Pasig 35, Muntinlupa 27, Mandaluyong 25, Caloocan 23, Taguig 22, Las Piñas 21, Marikina 18, Valenzuela and Pasay City 16 each.

Outside of the NCR, the following provinces recorded more than 30 cases: Laguna 84, Rizal 66, Cavite 60, Cebu 46, Bulacan 44 and Batangas 34.

The Health Agency announces 1184 new cases with a positivity of 12.6% and 24 added deaths. Almost half or 506 of the cases today, came from NCR alone.

In NCR, Quezon City led the haul with 99 cases followed by Taguig 68, and Manila 63. LGUs that had double digits today were: Pasig 43, Makati 38, Parañaque 29, Muntinlupa 24, Caloocan and Valenzuela with 23 each, Mandaluyong 21, Marikina 19, Las Piñas 18, Pasay City 16 and Malabon 11.

Provinces with more than 30 cases were: Laguna 55, Cebu 50, Cavite 47, Rizal 45, Bulacan 40, Isabela 39 and Batangas 34.

The Health Agency announces 1009 new cases with 12.6% positivity rate and 23 added deaths. The NCR owned 368 of the cases.

The cases in the NCR were hauled by Quezon City 89 and Manila 58. The LGUs with double digit numbers in Mega Manila were: Pasig and Parañaque 30 each, Makati and Caloocan 26 each, Las Piñas 24, Taguig 23, Mandaluyong 16 and Pasay City 13.

Four provinces registered more than 30 cases: Cavite 51, Laguna 60, Rizal 44 and Iloilo 33.

The Health Agency announces 791 new cases with 12.6% positivity (and continues to climb again). There were 19 added deaths today. NCR owned 330 (42%) of the day’s cases.

Quezon City led with 71 cases followed by Manila with 52. Other LGUs in NCR that reported double digits were: Caloocan 28, Pasig 27, Makati and Parañaque 23, Pasay City 20, Taguig 18, Muntinlupa 16, Las Piñas 13, Marikina 11, and Mandaluyong 10. Navotas was the lone LGU in Mega Manila that had ZERO COVID today.

Only three provinces reported 30 cases and up. They were: Cavite 50, Rizal 42 and Bulacan 30.

Cases are up by 7% on the week of December 5-11, 2022 versus the previous week. But I’ve stopped reporting the weekly reports of the Health Agency because in reality, the numbers are under estimated. That meant that for the week of December 5-11, the Philippines had an average of around 1170 new daily cases. Not bad? But not good as well. That’s because the data that’s being churned out is based on PCR tests done and reported. And because the test is expensive, cumbersome and takes a long time to get the results back (and is not even useful for determining recovery after COVID-19), the average tests has dipped significantly to an average of 11,000 tests a day.

The health indicator that manages to provide better outlook on the pandemic is healthcare utilization. With the very low numbers, non-ICU bed utilization is at 24%, while ICU bed utilization is at 22.4%. There were 156 added deaths this week, with 34 of them occurring in the past two weeks.

Vaccination is now something of the past as the percentage coverage for target population (the government defines target population as 70% of the total population, which we know is not right because we don’t offer vaccines to those less than 5 years old, which makes up 10-11% of the total population). Besides, getting ‘fully vaccinated’ with the current available vaccines at a time of Omicron isn’t really a scientific approach to how the vaccines should be utilized in the pandemic. Fortunately, a South African study showed that adjusted for vaccines and prior infection immunity, Omicron is 25% less lethal. Nevertheless, real world data is mixed and show that those highly vulnerable or those with co morbidities still continue to be more critically ill than those that have never received any COVID-19 vaccine at all.

Today, the Health Agency announces 1115 new cases with a high 12.4% reset on a Monday. There were a little more than 8000 individuals tested only on December 11, which will mean that we will most likely have high triple digits tomorrow. There were 22 added deaths today.

The NCR owned 387 of the day’s cases, which was led by Quezon City with 99, followed by Manila with 56 cases. Other LGUs with double digits were: Las Piñas 29, Taguig 25, Parañaque 25, Makati 24, Mandaluyong 21, Muntinlupa 19, Caloocan 18, Valenzuela 17, Pasig 15, and Pasay City 14.

Provinces with more than 30 cases were: Cavite 70, Cebu 52, Rizal 41, Laguna 38, Bulacan 35, Isabela 34, Cagayan 31 and Nueva Ecija 30.

NCR accounted for more than 42% of the 1134 new cases today. Positivity rate remained at 13.2% with just a little more than 10,000 PCR tests done December 10. There were 24 added deaths today.

In NCR, Quezon City led with 90 cases followed by Manila with 78 and Taguig with 63. Other LGUs in NCR with double digit cases are: Makati 29, Parañaque 27, Caloocan 26, La Pin1as 22, Mandaluyong 21, Muntinlupa and Marikina 19 each, Pasay City 15 and Valenzuela 12. Pateros ended its zero covid streak with 3 cases today.

Provinces with more than 30 cases were: Cavite 59, Laguna 51, Rizal 40, Cebu 38 and Bulacan 32.

A gentle reminder to everyone – the cases are not LOW. We are not testing enough and because only PCR tests are reported, the real prevalence of COVID19 in the country is not correctly tracked. Remember to keep minimum public health standards.

THE GLOBAL DATA AS OF 04 December 2022 (DEC 7, ED 121, WHO PUBLICATION)

While the World Health records a stable numbers for the week November 28 – December 4, 2022 compared to the previous week, with less than 3 million new cases reported, the report is to be interpreted with caution as testing strategies and reporting progressively change in different countries and therefore are highly underestimated. The good news is that the number of new weekly deaths declined by 17% compared to the previous week.

On a regional level, case numbers declined generally in all regions except the Region of the Americas which is up by 14%. Only the South-East Asia Region reported higher deaths this week (up by 3%).

On a country level, the highest numbers were from Japan with close to 750,000 cases (up by 7%), France (up by 38%) with more than 385,000 cases, South Korea with ore than 370,000 cases, the US with more than 296,000 cases and Brazil with more than 188,000 cases (+25%). Most deaths came from the US, Japan, Brazil, Italy and France.

The Health Agency announces 1158 new cases with 13.2% positivity rate and 11 added deaths. Yesterday, only a little more than 11,000 individuals were tested for COVID-19 by PCR.

NCR continued to account for the bulk of the cases with 40% or 456 cases today. This was led by Quezon City 74, Manila 62 and Makati 50. Other double digit numbers came from Caloocan 38, Taguig 37, Pasig 31, Muntinlupa 30, Parañaque 29, Mandaluyong 26, Valenzuela 20, Pasay City 14, Las Piñas 12, and Navotas 11. Pateros continued its ZERO COVID streak today.

Other provinces that had more than 30 cases were: Cavite and Rizal 60 each, Laguna 50, Bulacan 46, Cagayan 44, Cebu 36 and Benguet 44.

With 1460 new cases added today, NCR owned 40% (580) of the numbers. The national 7-day positivity rate is at 13.3% with 25 added deaths today.

The rule of thumb is – when NCR sees a jump in numbers, so do many provinces in CALABARZON.

Only one LGU had triple digits – in the Philippines – Quezon City with 135 cases. Fourteen other LGUs in NCR had double digits and only Pateros continued to have ZERO COVID. The 14 LGUs with double digits were: Manila 76, Taguig 44, Parañaque 41, Mandaluyong 39, Pasig and Makati 38 each, Caloocan 31, Marikina 24, Muntinlupa 23, Las Piñas 22, Valenzuela and Pasay City 20 each, Navotas 13, and San Juan 10.

In the provinces, the following had more than 30 cases: Cavite 79, Laguna 72, Rizal 64, Bulacan 38, Cebu 56 and Camarines Norte 38.

Constant reminder to everyone – we are under testing as there were only a little more than 10,000 tests done on December 8 (which happened to be a public holiday).

As predicted, based on the average tests done, we are touching >1400 cases/day. In actuality, because of the under testing, there are more COVID19 cases than what is being reported. It goes without saying – please make sure to observe minimum public health standards as the season of merry making draws us closer to gatherings and events that can be superspreaders.

As the positivity rate continued to climb to 13.3%, testing remained low at a little more than 12,000 PCR tests done yesterday and the Health Agency announced 1483 new cases with 26 added deaths today. NCR owned 513 of the cases (35%).

The haul in NCR was led by Quezon City with 105 cases and Manila with 75. Other LGUs with double digits were: Parañaque 48, Makati 40, Pasig 37, Taguig 33, Las Piñas 29, Caloocan 28, Mandaluyong 27, Pasay City and Marikiina 22 each. Muntinlupa 20, and Valenzuela 1. Pateros was the lone LGU with ZERO COVID today.

The provinces also saw rising cases especially CALABARZON with Laguna hauling 69 cases, Cavite 63, Rizal 61. Others with double digits more than 30 cases were: Cebu 63, Cagayan 56, Isabela 51, Benguet 40, Pangasinan 38, and Pampanga 31.