The National Capital Region (NCR) risk classification may be raised to moderate as the number of COVID-19 cases continue to increase in the past weeks, OCTA Research fellow Guido David said on Tuesday.

"At this time, Metro Manila is still at low risk (classification), it is still on green (alert) but by next week we’re projecting that we will be at moderate risk (classification), Yellow (alert)," David said during the "Laging Handa" public briefing on Tuesday.

"It is just in the projection but the current situation doesn't mean that we're going to increase the alert level, but this is a possibility within the next few weeks. Of course, that will depend again on the decision of the Department of Health and the Inter-Agency Task Force," he added.

David said if the number of cases will continue to increase, the government may have to reduce capacities in public transportation and indoor establishments.

"Well, again, that will depend again to the decision of the IATF and the Department of Health but there is a possibility that the alert level will increase. At the minimum, maybe the government will have to decrease the capacities in public transportation or in indoor establishments," he said.

David added that based on their projection the number of COVID-19 cases may reach around 500 by the end of June.

"In NCR, there is a possibility to reach, yesterday we had 188 cases in NCR, it may still increase to two to three hundred. In fact, our projection is by the end of June we may reach around four to five hundred," he said.

The increase in the number of cases becomes slightly faster because before we only had 65 cases per day and then it may reach to around 400 to 500 by the end of June. So, the increase of cases is getting faster," he added.

David said the fast increase in the number of COVID-19 cases has become "more concerning".

"It is now more concerning because in the past weeks the increase in the number of cases is very slight, as it only increases to 10 percent per week," he said.

"Now, the past week, it increased to 53 percent. From 10 percent to 53 percent, so, the seven-day average on the number of cases increased from 86 to 131 cases per day tapos iyong reproduction number sa NCR is around 1.59 percent, the positivity rate also increased to 2.7 percent while the testing and healthcare utilization also rose," he added. Robina Asido/DMS