COVID-19 positivity rate in Davao rises to 5.6%

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 13 July) – The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) positivity rate in Davao City has slightly gone beyond the acceptable threshold as it jumped to 5.6 percent as of Wednesday, an official of the City Government of Davao said.

_{Vaccination in Davao City. MindaNews file photo by MANMAN DEJETO}

During her program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5), Dr. Michelle Schlosser, spokesperson for Davao City COVID-19 Task Force, said the recent positivity rate is way higher compared with the previous weeks’ average of 1 to 1.5 percent.
 
The acceptable threshold, set by the World Health Organization, is at 5 percent. 

As the local government observed an uptick in the number of cases, Schlosser reiterated calls for strict adherence to minimum public health standards and urged Dabawenyos to get their primary doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines as well as their booster doses.
 
Based on the data released by the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao as of July 12, the city’s combined total COVID-19 cases is at 72,908, of which 147 are active.
 
But Schlosser said despite the trend, the increase is not worrisome.
 
She said the local government hopes that Dabawenyos would continue to follow the existing health protocols to prevent the transmission of the highly infectious virus.
 
She said the implementation of tight measures, as what the city government here did to put the previous COVID-19 surges under control, would cause havoc on the local economy and the livelihood of the public.
 
Schlosser said that health officials hope the positivity rate would not reach to a point where it would compel the local government to reimplement hard measures to contain the spread of the infection.
 
She said the city does not want its status to be reverted to higher alert levels. The city is currently under alert level 1 until July 15.
 
Schlosser said the local government wants to keep the balance between safety of the people and economy.
 
In a text message, she said the city is constructing temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs) in Paquibato and Marilog Districts in preparation for a possible surge of COVID-19 cases.
 
“We are always preparing for the worst all the time,” she said.
 
Schlosser said that the existing isolation facilities are not yet fully occupied.

“At the moment, we have no problem with our TTMFs. In preparation for the worst situation, we are constructing TTMFs. However, if our newly-constructed TTMFs are not enough, definitely, we will reactivate our previous strategies such as renting hotels,” she said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)