THE Covid-19 positivity rate in Davao City has dropped to 19.7 percent as of February 9, but it is still not low enough to indicate the end of the surge, according to a health official.
"Remember pag surge niabot ta sa 50 percent positivity, karon naa nata sa 19.7 percent na lang covering last week. Kung mag-continue pagbaba, makaingon gyud ta na we have been freed from the surge (We reached 50 percent positivity but now, we are at 19.7 percent covering last week. If it continues to decline, then we could say that we have been freed from the surge)," said Dr. Michelle Schlosser, spokesperson of the Davao City Covid-19 Task Force, in a radio interview on Wednesday, February 9.
However, a positivity rate of five percent would be a clear sign that the surge in Davao City has ended, Schlosser said.
The spokesperson said that epidemiological studies predict the surge might end in March 2022 but according to Dr. Rachel Pasion, head of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao, the duration of the surge partly relies on the behavior of the masses, making it difficult to predict.
"It would really be behavioral. It would depend on how we practice the minimum public health standard (MPHS), and most especially unsa ka paspas atong vaccination rollout (how fast we initiate rollout of the vaccination)," said Pasion during a virtual presser on February 4.
"It would really depend on how we discipline ourselves, maski siguro unsa kadaghan atong nabakunahan but if we don't practice MPHS, we can see parin ang pag saka sa atong cases (even if a lot are already vaccinated, we would still see a rise in cases if we don't practice MPHS)," she said.
Meanwhile, Davao City is classified as "moderate risk" for Covid-19 from February 7 to 12, as the two-week growth rate and average daily attack rate of the city made a significant fall.
Based on the Covid-19 Heightened Risk Assessment Map released on February 5, Davao City posed a "low" two-week growth rate (2WGR) of -34.7 from reaching a high of 328.19 2WGR on January 31.
The average daily attack rate (Adar) also decreased to 24.16 from 43.67 but is still classified as a "high" Adar.
Schlosser said the City Government will continue to implement the PDITR strategy, or the Prevention, Detection, Isolation, Treat, and Reintegration, to combat the spread of infection, as well as practicing the MPHS, the strengthened isolation, swabbing, quarantine, and the opening of the Covid-19 Cluster Clinic.
"Wala'y pag bag-o (nothing changed), the only thing na mag bag-o (may change) is to improve it, if not to perfect the strategy," said Schlosser.