The Davao City COVID-19 Task Force said the city’s COVID-19 positivity rate of 32 percent is still high and the current surge may take a while to end.
“If you see the positivity rate, it is still very high. The only time na nahuman na ang surge is if we will have the positivity rate of five percent below. That’s the acceptable positivity rate sa buong Pilipinas (A surge only ends when we achieve a positivity rate of five percent below. That’s the acceptable positivity rate in the Philippines),” Davao City COVID-19 Task Force spokesperson Dr. Michelle Schlosser said during the COVID-19 Alert program of 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR) on Wednesday, February 2, 2022.
In recent Department of Health (DOC) Davao COVID-19 regional daily case reports, Davao City’s daily active COVID-19 cases have gone down to three digits compared to the four-digit numbers logged in the middle of January this year.
On February 2, 2022, the city recorded 347 active cases out of the total 69,682 since March 2020. Of this number, 62,158 have recovered and 1,849 succumbed to the disease.
Dr. Schlosser said, “Wala pa ta nahuman, as of the moment naa pa ta sa 32 percent (We are not through this surge yet as we are currently at 32 percent positivity rate). Although we can see down-trending of cases, we can never be too confident.”
The 32 percent positivity rate is a drop from the 48 to 50 percent that Davao City had during the peak of the surge.
“However, we continue to push further na mubaba pa gyud ang positivity rate nato but this is all dependent sa mga tao sa Davao – how disciplined they are, how cooperative they are para sa atong mga lakang para ma combat nato ug mapildi ang COVID-19 (However, we continue to push further to reduce our positivity rate but this depends on the people of Davao – how disciplined they are, how cooperative they are in our efforts to combat and beat COVID-19),” the city health official added.
She said that the surge of COVID-19 cases in the city has left the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), San Pedro Hospital, and other COVID-19 admitting hospitals fully occupied.
Dr. Schlosser also said that some of the city’s isolation facilities, particularly the hotels, are full while the school-based TTMFs are already at a high-risk level.
This was why the City Government of Davao, through the Davao City COVID-19 Task Force, allowed home isolation for mild and asymptomatic cases.
She then reiterated for Dabawenyos to get vaccinated and avail the booster shots to give them an added layer of protection from the severity of COVID-19.CIO