Philippines may exceed 20k new COVID-19 cases Friday

Experts predict that the Philippines will exceed 20,000 new COVID-19 cases by January 7.

OCTA Research fellow Guido David projects Metro Manila to see between 10,000 and 11,000 new cases on Thursday, surpassing the previous peak of 9,031 cases due to the Delta variant in September.

The positivity rate in NCR increased to 45% as of January 4, with a potential nationwide tally of 15,000 to 16,000 new cases on Thursday.

David also noted that Metro Manila's positivity rate climbed to 34.7% on January 3, which is higher than the previous high of 29.6% in April 2021.

Hospital bed utilization rates in NCR have also increased by 41%, with occupied beds rising from 1,381 on December 24 to 1,942 on December 31.