PRESS Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles has tested positive for Sars-CoV-2, which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), she announced on Monday, August 15, 2022.
In a Facebook Live, Angeles said she underwent a Covid-19 RT-PCR test on Sunday, August 14, and the result was released the following day.
“Kung kaya’t sa bahay muna ako magtatrabaho habang ako ay naka-isolation,” she said.
Angeles said she is asymptomatic.
She took the opportunity to urge the public to get their Covid-19 booster doses to increase their protection against the severe effects of the virus.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Acting Chairman Engineer Carlo Dimayuga III also tested positive for coronavirus.
In a statement, the MMDA said Dimayuga is experiencing mild symptoms such as cold.
As of Sunday, the Philippines has a total of 40,016 active Covid-19 cases.
About 4,182 new cases were recorded on August 14.
The country has a total caseload of 3,831,941 with 61,036 deaths.
The Department of Health earlier said that the NCR leads the regions in the country with the most number of Covid-19 cases.
The agency projected that cases in Metro Manila may go as high as 10,600 per day by October.
Meanwhile, the Octa research group said the one week growth rate in the NCR decreased to negative one percent as of August 14 from nine percent on August 7.
“This could be the start of a downward trend, although the one week growth rate will have to decrease even further (e.g. -50 percent) to see significant decreases in daily new cases in the NCR,” Octa fellow Doctor Guido David said.
The NCR’s reproduction number also decreased to 1.15 as of August 11, from 1.21 as of August 4.
The positivity rate also decreased from 17.4 percent on August 6 to 16.2 percent as of August 13.
A decrease in the average daily attack rate was also noted from 8.77 to 8.70 per 100,000 population.
Octa noted, though, that the healthcare utilization in the NCR increased slightly to 37 percent as of August 13, from 36 percent on August 8. The intensive care unit occupancy remained at 31 percent
“The NCR remains at moderate risk at this time,” it said. (SunStar Philippines)