By Robina Asido

The recovery against Delta variant has begun as the reproduction number of COVID-19 in the National Capital Region and nearby areas continue to improve, OCTA Research said on Thursday.

"We can say that the reproduction number in Metro Manila has went down to less than one, it is 0.99, we also have one week growth rate of minus 20 percent it means the average count of cases this week of 4,600 is 20 percent lower than last week of 5,800, so 1200 cases were reduced our seven day average," Guido David, OCTA Research Fellow said during the ''Laging Handa'' public briefing on Thursday.

"Not only in Metro Manila, in Cavite the reproduction number is .87, in Laguna .90, in Bulacan 0.86, in Cebu city awe know it is also less than one already, 0.66, and in Davao City the reproduction number is around one," he added.

David explained that the reproduction number of less than one shows that the spread of the virus become slower.

However, David noted that the Filipino people should continue to be very careful as the number of cases in the hospital are still high because the reproduction number has just started to improve.

"Not only in Metro Manila but we also see the improvement even in other regions... however, we wanted to clarify that the number of reproduction has just started to go down. So the number of cases are still high, that is why we still need to follow the health protocols," he said.

"Our recovery against Delta variant has started, however the number of cases is still high and many people were still in the hospital. This is the start of our recovery and we want this to continue," he added.

David said there are regions where the cases have just started to increase which require the Filipinos to continue to be very careful despite the good development.

"The positivity rate in Metro Manila has decreased but not yet in the entire country because there are regions which are still experiencing increase of cases like here in Region II, also in Region V," he said.

"The positivity rate has decrease but I cannot say yet when it comes to the number of cases. I cannot say yet the projections in the entire country because there are different trends. But in Metro Manila, we expect that maybe by the end of the month we will only have 4,000 daily average and by October maybe we will only have daily average of two to three thousand," he added. DMS