Covid-19 cases in Davao decreasing, but positivity rate remains high

File photo by Macky Lim
File photo by Macky Lim

THE Department of Health-Davao Region (DOH-Davao) said Covid-19 cases in the region are experiencing a downtrend, but the daily positivity rate remains high.

Rachel Joy Pasion, DOH-Davao Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit head, said during the DOH-Davao virtual presser on Monday, October 4, 2021 that although the daily positive rate remains high, a significant downtrend is being experienced in the entire region.

Pasion said the region has recorded the highest actual positivity rate of 34.5 percent in September 2021. The highest seven-day moving average (daily confirmed new cases) for the entire region peaked at 32.5 percent.

Currently, the moving average is 22.7 percent.

"Bumaba po talaga 'yung ating positivity rate," she said during the DOH-Davao virtual presser.

Although she said this is still high compared to the ideal positivity rate of five percent, according to the World Health Organization. In addition, having an ideal positivity rate signifies that the Covid-19 transmission in a certain locality is manageable.

"Medyo mataas pa talaga, hindi lang (It is still high, not only) in the whole region, but the entire Philippines with regards to the ideal positivity rate for Covid-19,” Pasion said.

As for the contributory factor of the downtrend of cases, she attributed the local government's implementation of granular lockdown in certain communities and barangays where there is a clustering of Covid-19 cases.

However, she also attributed the low testing output due to some pending specimens awaiting to be tested. This was after the Southern Philippines Medical Center Molecular Laboratory suspended its operation due to a technical problem in its automated extraction machine.

The SPMC molecular lab can process around 3,000 swab samples from Davao City and other parts of Davao Region.

With this, SPMC can only manually process around 600 to 1,000 swab samples from SPMC and Davao City.

Despite the low turnout of tests, Pasion said the two-week growth rate (2WGR) has also decreased compared to the previous two weeks.

Based on the previous 2WGR, it was at 19.19. The recent 2WGR is -46.09.

She attributed the high number of vaccination turnout in the region.

Out of the total administered doses, 1,244,099 already received their first doses, and 1,018,667 were already fully vaccinated after 876,611 received their second dose, while 142.056 received their single-shot dose of the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine.

Meanwhile, Digos City in Davao del Sur had the most number of active cases in the region with 1,890 cases as of October 2. This was followed by Tagum City in Davao del Norte with 1,626 cases, and Buhangin District in Davao City with 1,267.

In terms of new cases from September 26 to October 2, Tagum City had a total 361 new cases, followed by Buhangin District with 211, and Tugbok District in Davao City with 199.

Overall, Davao Region as of October 3, had a total of 95,445 confirmed Covid-19 cases, of which 20,584 were active cases, 71,899 were recoveries and 2,962 were deaths.

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