PH COVID positivity rate hits 12.9%

THE nationwide COVID-19 positivity rate increased to 12.9 percent on Wednesday, the independent monitoring group OCTA Research said.

This was up from 11.7 percent on April 25, said OCTA Research fellow Guido David.

Earlier, the Department of Health said it registered 506 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the overall tally to more than 4 million since the pandemic started.

The positivity rate—or percentage of people who test positive in relation to the total number of people tested—also rose in Metro Manila to 12.3 percent from 8.1 percent in the previous week.

OCTA said the rising cases may be due to the COVID-19 Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, dubbed as “Arcturus,” spreading in the country.

The DOH announced the detection of the first case of Arcturus in Iloilo province on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the WHO said Wednesday that COVID-19 deaths had dropped by 95 percent since the start of the year but warned that the virus was still on the move.

"We're very encouraged by the sustained decline in reported deathsfrom COVID-19, which have dropped 95 percent since the beginning of this year," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

"However, some countries are seeing increases, and over the past four weeks, 14,000 people lost their lives to this disease.

"And, as the emergence of the new XBB. 1.16 variant illustrates, the virus is still changing, and is still capable of causing new waves of disease and death."

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said XBB sublineages were now dominant worldwide.

They have an increase in growth advantage and are also showing immuneescape, meaning people can be reinfected despite having been vaccinated or previously infected. With AFP (See full story online at manilastandard.net)