DOH apologizes on mistakenly classified COVID-19 hotspot cities in Metro Manila

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 7) – The Department of Health (DOH) issued an apology on Monday night over its wrong classification of four Metro Manila cities as COVID-19 hotspots.

Health Spokesperson Usec. Maria Rosario Vergeire previously announced during the Health Department’s daily COVID-19 press briefing on Monday afternoon that the four Metro Manila cities showed notable increase in infections over the past two weeks.

Vergeire mentioned the emerging hotspots as Marikina City (+51 cases and 43.47% growth rate), Muntinlupa City (+30 cases and 35.16% growth rate), Makati City (+135 cases and 30.18% growth rate), and Quezon City (+406 cases and 34.5% growth rate).

But on Monday night, the DOH issued a statement to stress that Marikina City, Muntinlupa City, and Makati City are not included in the list of emerging COVID-19 hotspots in the country.

“The following cities were mistakenly classified as hotspots and was based on a report last month. We are thankful to report that as of July 5, the mentioned cities show a significant decline in case growth,” the Health Department said in their statement.

The DOH corrected that as of July 5, Marikina City recorded a 68 percent decrease in COVID-19 cases. While Muntinlupa City tallied a 10 percent dip in their COVID-19 infections and Makati City had a four percent decrease in their cases.

However, the Health Department emphasized they are closely monitoring Quezon City but not yet labeled it as an emerging COVID-19 hotspot city. Their updated records show there is a 34 percent increase in the COVID-19 cases there over the past two weeks.

The country reported additional 2,099 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, hiking the total to 46,333 infections. In addition, there are 32,845 active COVID-19 cases according to the DOH.

Some 1,303 individuals died and 12,185 recovered from the virus.

A total of 11 hospitals in the metro have also reached full capacity of their intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients, the DOH noted.

Vergeire also added the national positivity rate — or the percentage of those who tested positive for the virus out of the total number of tests — rose to 10.53% on July 2, from 6.67% on June 29.