OCTA Research saw a decrease in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the Philippines despite the upcoming holidays, which will further increase the mobility of the public amid the loosened restrictions.

“With the coming holidays, we are seeing a possible decrease in case count overall, also in Metro Manila decreasing,” Octa Research fellow Dr. Guido David said in a television interview.

“Today, we may see more than a thousand (daily cases) but definitely, tomorrow we are expecting lower numbers, could be down to about 600 or 700,” he added.

On December 18, 2022, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 973 new Covid-19 cases that brought the country’s total active cases to 17,900 and total caseload of 4,056,239.

David said the Covid-19 positivity rate in some of the provinces in the country has already decreased over the past week.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), the positivity rate went down to 13.9 percent as of December 17 from 14.4 percent on December 10; Kalinga from 57.9 percent to 26.2 percent; Benguet from 20.9 percent to 13.6 percent; Cagayan from 26.3 percent to 15 percent; and Nueva Ecija from 49 percent to 37.2 percent.

Positivity rates in the provinces of Albay, Batangas, Camarines Sur, Cavite, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Isabela, La Union, Mountain Province, Pampanga, Pangasinan and Zambales also went down over the said period.

In the province of Cebu, the positivity rate, or the percentage of people who were found positive for coronavirus among the total number of individuals tested, went down to 6.3 percent from 9 percent last week.

Aklan’s positivity rate slid down to 23.8 from 44.1 percent, Bohol from 9.4 to six percent; Capiz from 8.5 to five percent; Davao del Norte from 2.8 to 1.7 percent; Leyte from 11 to 9.3 percent; Oriental Mindoro from 23.1 to 18.2 percent; and South Cotabato from 5.6 to four percent.

Positivity rates in the provinces of Davao del Sur, Iloilo, Misamis Oriental, Negros Occidental, Palawan, Zamboanga del Sur, Bataan, Bulacan, Rial, Tarlac and Zambales went up over the past week.

“It looks like the BQ.1 wave is receding in time for a Happy Holiday,” David said in a Twitter post.

Following the detection of Omicron BQ.1, a sublineage of the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant, in the country, David warned of the spike of cases.

BQ.1 is reportedly currently the cause of increase in Covid-19 cases in the United States and the European region. (SunStar Philippines)