Health official: Davao City exits surge as positivity rate drops to 5%

Photo by Macky Lim/SunStar file

By IONA FINLAY C. MENDOZA, SunStar Davao

AN OFFICIAL of the Davao City Covid-19 Task Force said the recent surge, suspected to have been caused by the Omicron variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, is over as the positivity rate drops to five percent as of February 20.

“Unta mag padayon siya but maging consistent lang ni siya kung consistent ang mga tao sa ilang pagka-disiplinado (It will only be consistent if the public is disciplined),” Dr. Michelle Schlosser, spokesperson of the Covid-19 Task Force, said during a radio interview on Wednesday, February 23.

In the latest Covid-19 Regional Daily Case Bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao, as of February 22, Davao City had 588 total active cases, a significant development compared to approximately two weeks ago when a total of 3,930 active cases were tallied on February 6.

The City Government of Davao also announced that Davao City was classified as low risk for Covid-19 transmission after achieving a "low" -84.72 two-week growth rate (2WGR) and a "medium" 3.79 average daily attack rate (Adar).

With these developments, Schlosser said the City Government will continue to implement the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Reintegrate (PDITR) + Vaccination strategy to keep the Covid-19 management in place.

This includes proper contact tracing, swabbing, testing, quarantine and isolation.

“(Hopefully) Consistent pud ang tao na magpadayon sa kooperasyon sa mga lakang sa gobyerno labi na gyod sa atong vaccination rollout,” Schlosser said.

(Hopefully, the public will consistently cooperate with the government’s protocols, especially with the vaccination rollout.)

The spokesperson previously said a positivity rate of five percent or lower would be a clear indication that the surge is over since it is the only "acceptable" positivity rate, and that any number over five percent is still considered high.

Meanwhile, the whole of Davao Region recorded a total of 2,975 active cases as of February 22, based on the data of DOH-Davao.

Of this number, Davao del Sur had the highest number of active cases with 1,080, followed by the 588 cases from Davao City.

Davao del Norte recorded 484 active cases, 394 cases from Davao Occidental, 222 cases from Davao de Oro, and 207 cases from Davao Oriental.