MAKATI, Baguio and Davao City are among the areas in the Philippines at high-risk for coronavirus transmission, according to a new report.
Experts from the Octa Research Group on Wednesday, November 25, listed several parts of the Philippines as high-risk after observing an uptick in new COVID-19 cases for the past several days.
In its latest report, Octa classified as high-risk areas the following: Makati in Metro Manila, Baguio in Benguet, Lucena in Quezon, Batangas City in Batangas, Capas in Tarlac, Davao City in Davao del Sur, and Pagadian in Zamboanga del Sur.
These high-risk areas are labelled as such due to their high daily cases, high positivity rate, high attack rate, or high hospital occupancy due to COVID-19.
The research group recommended that local government units establish increased testing, contact tracing and isolation to slow down the spread.
“Furthermore, in the identified high-risk LGUs, the implementation of more aggressive and effective localized lockdowns with stricter border controls is urgently needed to suppress further viral transmissions,” it added.
The experts also warned the public against holding social gatherings among households as they could drive the increase of infections during the holiday season.
“To prevent a similar wave here in the Philippines, we encourage the government and LGUs to enforce the current GCQ limit of 10 persons per gathering in the NCR and to discourage office parties and other social events, especially as we approach the Christmas season,” the Octa Research said.
“Family gatherings should be limited in size and should be celebrated outside to mitigate transmission,” it added.
The Octa team likewise urged the national government to continue enforcing safety measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
“We continue to urge the national and the local governments to strictly monitor and enforce compliance with minimum health standards such as physical distancing, the wearing of face masks and face shields and proper hygiene to reverse the increase in transmissions at the community level,” it said.
“Citizens must also continue to be vigilant and disciplined in following the minimum health standards set by the DOH (Department of Health),” it added.
As of this writing, the country has a total of 424,297 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 8,242 fatalities and 387,266 recoveries.
