After weeks of continuous drop in active cases of coronavirus diseases (COVID-19), Quezon City’s positivity rate now has reached 4%, below the 5% positivity rate that the World Health Organization recommends as the threshold for re-opening the economy.

For the week of November 5-11, OCTA Research Group has noted the 4% positivity rate from the 6% rate recorded in the past week from October 29 to November 4 according to the Quezon City Epidemiology and Surveillance Disease Unit (CESU) data.

Also, based on the Department of Health case reports, an average of only 65 new cases per day were recorded from November 10-16 compared to the previous week’s average of 91 new cases.

“Finally, after months of continuous fight against this pandemic, our numbers show great improvements. We are hopeful that this precedes our ultimate goal of being a COVID-free city,” QC Mayor Joy Belmonte said.

“We are proud of our partners in the QC local government and we congratulate them for their hard work has been paying off. With Mayor Joy and her team’s determination, they were able to greatly mitigate the spread of the disease,” Dr. Ranjit Rye of OCTA Research Group said.

OCTA Research also stressed that the city should sustain the same, if not lower productivity rate in one or two weeks before allowing further relaxation of quarantine protocols, echoing the recommendation made by the World Health Organization.

“We are going by their recommendation as we need to be prudent in finding ways to help revitalize the economy,” Belmonte said.

As for the reproduction number (Ro), the city’s reproduction rate from November 9-15 is at .67, much lower than the Philippines’ Ro of .81, and NCR’s Ro of .71.

However, the city mayor urged QCitizens to continue practicing basic health protocols to ensure a safe Christmas season.

“We will not be lax in implementing basic health protocols such as wearing face masks and face shields and social distancing. We want to ensure that while we are celebrating our holidays, there will be less or no further infection,” Belmonte added.

Belmonte also called on barangays to constantly remind their constituents to wear masks and face shields, as well as practice physical distancing as she noted reports that residents in some barangays are no longer observing minimum health standards.

Joseph Juico, Head of QC Task Force on COVID-19 vowed to reinforce the city government’s efforts to consistently maintain minimum health standards.

“We will intensify our campaign to remind our QCitizens on the importance of following the minimum health standards. The challenge now is to sustain the gains and protect families especially the elderly during the holidays,” Juico said.

“Dahil ang Paskong Kyusi, mask ligtas, mask masaya.”

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