WHILE OCTA Research reported that the reproduction number (Rt) of Covid-19 in the National Capital Region (NCR) has gone down to 1.91 from 1.99, the Philippines on Thursday recorded its highest single-day increase in the number of new infections with 8,773.
The country’s total number of cases stood at 693,048.
Despite the observed decrease in the Rt, OCTA Research stressed in its March 25 report: “It is too early to tell if this is the beginning of a hoped-for downward trend in the reproduction number, given that the NCR was placed under the GCQ [general community quarantine] bubble.” Rt is the number of people that one infected person can infect.
However, for Chairman Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the improvement in the Rt is a good indication.
“Hindi na ganun katindi [The number of persons infected is not that much]. So, effective ang ginagawa natin sa metro [So, what we are doing here in Metro Manila is effective],” Abalos told the BusinessMirror.
He hopes the observed improvement will continue in the coming days as the NCR is currently under a GCQ “bubble” along with Laguna, Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal.
As of 4 p.m. of March 25, the Department of Health (DOH) also recorded 574 recoveries and 56 deaths.
Of the total number of cases, 14.4 percent (99,891) are active, 83.7 percent (580,062) have recovered, and 1.89 percent (13,095) have died.