Raffin

A much lower total of 5,177 reported yesterday. A combination of the test depressing weekend effect and that 10 labs were late in submitting. Why so many? The result being that yesterday's sample of infections is a particularly unrepresentative one. Some evidence that NCR results were the ones mostly affected, but there was also a strange result from E Visayas, where only 13 new cases were reported, far below recent numbers, eg 198 the day before.
Positivity 11.7% from 37k samples. A backlog of 851 included. Tests on the way lower at 35k.

Recoveries 6.2k

Deaths lower at 46 with 15 RDs

Active cases at 53,203 with 958 Severe, down 19 and 745 Critical, down 15.
NCR ICU at 53%, unchanged. Nationally 59%, up 2%.

Regional data (200 and over)

4A 817
C Luzon 776
NCR 653
Cagayan 569
W Visayas 408
SOCCSK 370
N Mindanao 361
Davao 209

A more than 300 fall in the NCR, put the area in an unusual 3rd position. Also a more than 100 fall in 4A. But C Luzon was up by 23 cases.
Nearly all other regions were down except BARMM, up 40 to 148 and SOCCSK, which repeated 370.

NCR at a very low 12.6% of all cases.
The top 6 regions 69.4%, up over 7%

In the NCR all cities were down.
Top 4: QC 182, Paranaque 84, Manila 71, Taguig 46

The NCR bubble provinces were all down except Cavite, which had 73 more to lead with 268.
Pampanga had just 2 less than the day before at 169.
Quezon province had 36 more at 94.

The NCR bubble was at 26.3%, down a little.

For selected cities:

Bacolod 71
Baguio 20
CDO 100
Cebu 30
Cotabato 44
Davao 154
GenSan 96 (75 were announced yesterday)
IloIlo 40
P Princesa 29 up 2
Zamboanga 65

Bohol 75

Angeles 31
Tarlac 68

Nearly all down, many substantially.

Quarantine areas change:

Some cities and areas in Mindanao were put up into MECQ at short notice,

https://www.rappler.com/nation/minda...q-short-notice

A worsening situation in MIndanao has been evident for some weeks now. A reluctance by the leader to show up Mindanao again, as with Davao's surge last year. Davao is also now seeing a strong resurgence and it will be interesting to see what happens there with the Quarantine level.


Davao Region

Related to this the President wants to divert vaccines from the NCR area to the Visayas and Mindanao to try to abate the covid rise in those regions.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/01/...sayas-mindanao

"...most of the bulk (?) of people in the NCR have already been vaccinated" he says.

Unclear exactly what the President means but the vaccine Czar, Galvez, has said that 10 million adults in the NCR need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity there, preferably twice. Let's assume the President means half herd immunity, 5M.
So far the Philippines has only done 5M doses in the whole of the country, only about one fifth have been dosed twice.
Not true!
The President likes to have it both ways, but there's not enough vaccine available. The NCR is the economic hub. Mindanao is his political and emotional interest. Someone needs to tell him he has to choose which he needs to concentrate on first.

Variants:


Dr John talking about a surprise and dangerous new variant from Vietnam.


Finally, the latest national DOH chart:


Levelling nationally..

Bealinehx

Aside from the principle content of this thread. Good news UK had zero C-19 deaths yesterday. Bad news is that we may be seeing the start of major C-19 outbreaks throughout SE Asia. Worrying trends in Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Myanmar an exception (if true) and Singapore seemingly under control.

Raffin

Yes, add to that list Taiwan. Even Indonesia now showing at least a pause in its downward trend. No one believes the Myanmar numbers after the coup.
For the UK I do hope they postpone the June 21 relaxation. Gentle rises are dangerous. In late August last year cases were much lower than now at only 1k a day but starting to gently rise They reached 2k daily at the end of the first week of September, then tripled daily by the end of September.

Raffin

Yesterday a similar weekend effect low number, 5,257, with 3 labs only late. Positivity of 12.8% from 37.8k tests. More up to date as backlog included only 416. Tests on the way higher at 41.3k. But Typhoon Dante may reduce the testing effort.
Recoveries 6.3k.

Deaths high at 146, 85 of them RDs.

Active cases 52,132 and Severe 991, up 33, Critical 782, up 43.
A large change after many days with little.

NCR ICU at 50%, down 3%, nationally 57%, down 2%.

Regional data (200 and over)

NCR 954
4A 775
C Luzon 533
W Visayas 391
Davao 368
N Mindanao 340
Bicol 257
Cagayan 250
Zamboanga 230
CAR 208

NCR up about 300 and at 18.1% of all cases.
4A was down a little but C Luzon went down by over 200 cases.
Five other regions were down.
Seven other regions were up significantly. Davao by 159 and Zamboanga by 130 both stood out.

The top 6 regions at 64%, down 5%.

In the NCR 11 cities had significantly more cases.
Paranaque had 58 more than the day before, which itself was high. Unusually high numbers recently.
Caloocan had 32 more.

QC 222, Paranaque 142, Manila 98, Makati 76

Provincially changes were generally modest.
For the NCR bubble provinces Rizal was noteworthy with an increase of 35

Cavite 285, Laguna 183, Rizal 147 and Bulacan 146

Elsewhere Batangas was up 25 to 150.
Quezon province only reported 7 new cases.
Pampanga reported about 100 less cases than the day before.

NCR bubble at 32.6%, up 6%

For selected cities:

Bacolod 109, up
Baguio 124, up over 100
CDO 97
Cebu 11
Cotabato 33
Davao 226, up over 70
Gen San 24
IloIlo 49
P Princesa 9
Zamboanga 49, down

Bohol 42, down 32

Angeles 21
Tarlac 39, both down

In the NCR:


NCR downward trend leveling somewhat..

The OCTA group estimate R there last week at 0.68, up from 0.57.
Daily average cases increase of 8% on the week before.
They estimate the Daily Attack Rate at 8.22 per 100k, To put this in some perspective DAR of 8 and up to 12 can only be seen in the UK in places where the Indian variant has got a moderate hold. Eg Hounslow in W London. Other areas where the Indian variant has more spread can have higher DARs eg Luton 10, Leicester 12 and up to Bolton 54. But most other areas are now much lower than 8.
Given the recent falls in testing, which haven't been explained ...except for some vague comments about increased antigen tests...and the delays with the data, slow roll out of vaccination the NCR continues to be clearly at moderate risk.

On vaccination:

https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/...ng-second-dose

Given the first dose was probably Sinovac that is a concern.

Gazza-d

Where do they get their R rates from, are they just kidding themselves. The UK has not dropped much below 1 for months with a fraction of the new cases compared to the Philippines.

Raffin

I wonder about that too. They never say how they work it out but of the elements is contact tracing data, which seems to be of much lower quality than the UKs, which itself has been criticised a lot. All you can say is however they do it they got a higher number for last week.

Raffin

Yesterday nearly 2k more cases, 4 labs late. backlog over 1k so not very up to date. Positivity from 44.2k was a much higher 14%. Something missing from news reports! Tests on the way higher at 47.4k.
Recoveries 3.5k.

Deaths high again at 199, 141 of them the strange RDs. News organisations here give out the information on all these RDs day after day but never say anything more.
Is it all simply that certain deaths are listed as recovered pending further investigation? That would also be weird but may be following a set down procedure.

Active cases 55,790. up more than 3k.
Severe up 13 at 1,004 and Critical down 1 at 781

NCR ICU at 49%, down 1% (Nationally 56%, down 1%)

Regional data:

NCR 1,218
C Luzon 954
W Visayas 847
4A 784
Davao 426
Cagayan 404
Zamboanga 386
N Mindanao 337

NCR rose by 266, C Luzon by over 400 but Region 4A had just a few more cases to be in 4th position as W Visayas more than doubled its cases (see below for more).
Cagayan added just over 150 more cases.
Zamboanga put on 156 more.
Illocos more than doubled its cases to 285.

Top 6 regions 64.2%,, unchanged.

In the NCR Caloocan added 113 more over the day before.
A coincidence for QC. It had exactly the same number of cases as the day before. (?)
Other cities with significantly more cases were Las Pinas. Muntinlupa, Pasig and Taguig.

QC 222, Caloocan 171, Manila 96, Pasig 88, Las Pinas 87, Paranaque 86

Provincially in the NCR bubble Bulacan and Laguna had some more cases, Cavite and Rizal some less.
Elsewhere it was noteworthy that Pampanga had nearly 100 more and Pangasinan 46 more.

NCR bubble 26.6% of all cases, down 6%.

Selected cities:

Bacolod 122
Baguio 15, down
CDO 80
Cebu 34
Cotabato 34
Davao 294, up 68
Gen San 59
IloIlo 227, up 178
P Princesa 22
Zamboanga 120, up 71

Bohol 28

Angeles 45
Tarlac 104 , up by 65

The Philippines spending P100m on a study which will just duplicate results from many other bigger and better studies in countries far ahead with vaccination and choice of vaccines.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/...9-vaccines-pgh

The covid situation in the Philippines:

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news..._picks&order=1

Dr De Guzman giving a good summary of the situation but notice she wants to downplay the recent rises in the Visayas ("infections increasing gradually").

Looking at the two worst regions there:


W Visayas...gradual increase?


E Visayas... also increasing at a fast rate.

True, cases in the Central Visayas are falling but we should also include MIMAROPA, a collection of smaller islands with 1,159 active cases and a small population.


MIMAROPA

For comparison E Visayas 1,682 active cases, C Visayas 1,896 and W Visayas 4,735.
Total 9,472.

The Visayas has 17% of current active cases, Luzon 61% and Mindanao 22%.

But taking into account population the 3 main parts of the country look a lot closer:

Luzon 565 active cases per M
Visayas 451
MIndanao 438

So while infections in Luzon have fallen recently, with a very recent slight upward trend recently, the Visayas and Mindanao are catching up quickly.
The pandemic is nowhere near being controlled nationally.

This has implications for education as the President is currently being pressed to allow face to face education trials to start in areas of the country with low infection rates.
The Philippines standing out in Asia in not having physical classes still.
But there are many less of those now than there were when he decided to delay those trials late last year.

Bealinehx

Marikina Health Office has called me for my first anti C-19 vaccination for 07.00 Monday 7th June. I was very pleased to receive the SMS message. As I did contract C-19 my antibody count will be significantly higher than those that had not contracted C-19. A Canadian study shows that after my second dose my antibody count will not increase significantly which begs the question whether my second dose is really necessary (I will be taking my second dose) . After the second dose people who had contracted C-19 will have 10 times more antibodies than those who did not contract C-19.
This study is on going and also makes the point that people who contracted SARS 1 in the early 2000's still posses antibodies which provide high levels of immunity. Let us all hope that this SAR 2 will follow suit.

Gazza-d

The immunity from catching covid and the vaccine are not the same thing because the vaccine is only the spike protein whereas the covid is the whole thing. The antibodies will die off quite rapidly but what you are left with are the memory cells. These migrate into your bone marrow, not sure if the red or white marrow, where it can be called apon for future use.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mzOf6Cj3T-8

Bealinehx

No doubt it will be another few months before definitive analyses are published. The problem the world faces are with politicians ignoring the science. Bozo and Tony Hancock are the greatest exponents.

Feidlimid

Here’s a link to an interesting article on the subject. I’m not seeking to detract from the OP’s regular updates so if the moderators or the OP think this post would be better off moved elsewhere or to a new thread, please take the necessary action. I found it to be an interesting, well written article. A tad heavy on the scientific jargon at times but still a very well laid out, easy to follow argument. I’ve included a few extracts below in italics for members who don’t want to read the whole article but would appreciate a brief overview. As the author says, members will form their own opinions. https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-...-box-at-wuhan/

Where we are so far?
Lab Escape from Wuhan
The available evidence leans more strongly in one direction than the other. Readers will form their own opinion. But it seems to me that proponents of lab escape can explain all the available facts about SARS2 considerably more easily than can those who favor natural emergence.
It’s documented that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were doing gain-of-function experiments designed to make coronaviruses infect human cells and humanized mice. This is exactly the kind of experiment from which a SARS2-like virus could have emerged. The researchers were not vaccinated against the viruses under study, and they were working in the minimal safety conditions of a BSL2 laboratory. So escape of a virus would not be at all surprising. In all of China, the pandemic broke out on the doorstep of the Wuhan institute. The virus was already well adapted to humans, as expected for a virus grown in humanized mice. It possessed an unusual enhancement, a furin cleavage site, which is not possessed by any other known SARS-related beta-coronavirus, and this site included a double arginine codon (CGG-CGG) also unknown among beta-coronaviruses. What more evidence could you want, aside from the presently unobtainable lab records documenting SARS2’s creation?
Natural Emergence
Proponents of natural emergence have a rather harder story to tell. The plausibility of their case rests on a single surmise, the expected parallel between the emergence of SARS2 and that of SARS1 and MERS. But none of the evidence expected in support of such a parallel history has yet emerged. No one has found the bat population that was the source of SARS2, if indeed it ever infected bats. No intermediate host has presented itself, despite an intensive search by Chinese authorities that included the testing of 80,000 animals. There is no evidence of the virus making multiple independent jumps from its intermediate host to people, as both the SARS1 and MERS viruses did. There is no evidence from hospital surveillance records of the epidemic gathering strength in the population as the virus evolved. There is no explanation of why a natural epidemic should break out in Wuhan and nowhere else. There is no good explanation of how the virus acquired its furin cleavage site, which no other SARS-related beta-coronavirus possesses, nor why the site is composed of human-preferred codons. The natural emergence theory battles a bristling array of implausibilities.
The records of the Wuhan Institute of Virology certainly hold much relevant information. But Chinese authorities seem unlikely to release them given the substantial chance that they incriminate the regime in the creation of the pandemic. Absent the efforts of some courageous Chinese whistle-blower, we may already have at hand just about all of the relevant information we are likely to get for a while.
Chinese authorities.
China’s central authorities did not generate SARS2, but they sure did their utmost to conceal the nature of the tragedy and China’s responsibility for it. They suppressed all records at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and closed down its virus databases. They released a trickle of information, much of which may have been outright false or designed to misdirect and mislead. They did their best to manipulate the WHO’s inquiry into the virus’s origins, and led the commission’s members on a fruitless run-around. So far they have proved far more interested in deflecting blame than in taking the steps necessary to prevent a second pandemic.
Virologists
You might think the SARS2 pandemic would spur virologists to re-evaluate the benefits of gain-of-function research, even to engage the public in their deliberations. But no. Many virologists deride lab escape as a conspiracy theory, and others say nothing. They have barricaded themselves behind a Chinese wall of silence which so far is working well to allay, or at least postpone, journalists’ curiosity and the public’s wrath. Professions that cannot regulate themselves deserve to get regulated by others, and this would seem to be the future that virologists are choosing for themselves.
The US role in funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
From June 2014 to May 2019, Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance had a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, to do gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Whether or not SARS2 is the product of that research, it seems a questionable policy to farm out high-risk research to foreign labs using minimal safety precautions. And if the SARS2 virus did indeed escape from the Wuhan institute, then the NIH will find itself in the terrible position of having funded a disastrous experiment that led to the death of more than 3 million worldwide, including more than half a million of its own citizens.
Conclusion
People round the world who have been pretty much confined to their homes for the last year might like a better answer than their media are giving them. Perhaps one will emerge in time. After all, the more months pass without the natural emergence theory gaining a shred of supporting evidence, the less plausible it may seem. Perhaps the international community of virologists will come to be seen as a false and self-interested guide. The common sense perception that a pandemic breaking out in Wuhan might have something to do with a Wuhan lab cooking up novel viruses of maximal danger in unsafe conditions could eventually displace the ideological insistence that whatever Trump said can’t be true.

Raffin

According to Wikipedia the Philippines was the first country outside China to confirm a death from Covid-19. at the end of January 2020. Someone from Wuhan,
Wikipedia also says that Thailand detected the first confirmed case outside China through thermal imaging on January 13, just a day after an announcement from the WHO about the Wuhan outbreak. Followed by other cases. My guess is that travelers from China were bringing the virus here, but undetected, through January too.

We're in China's backyard and a policy of cultivating more links has been pursued over the last few years while at the same time turning a blind eye to their many nefarious activities.
Whether to get infrastructure built, plane loads of tourists or business deals. But the people and government here have to be more aware of the nature of the Chinese regime and the special risks you are open to when dealing with it. What's coming out about Wuhan will just confirm what many already understand but will be useful to convince more of those who up to now have not. And to appreciate more what is offered by Western countries. Astra Zeneca's vaccine is the only one not offered for a profit or anything else,

Raffin

Yesterday a couple of hundred plus more cases at 7,450. Five labs late. Eight hundred backlog. Positivity remains high at 13.6%. Tests in the pipeline about the same at 47.4k.
Recoveries 2,4k, that's the lowest daily total since mid April.
Deaths maintaining the high numbers recently at 181 with 119 of them RDs.

So active cases at 60,194, the highest for a month.

Severe 973, down 31 and Critical 790, up 9.

NCR ICU at 50%, plus 1% (Nationally 56%, unchanged).

Regional data: (400 and over)

4A 1,169
NCR 1,118
C Luzon 703
W Visayas 695
N Mindanao 539
Cagayan 515
C Visayas 467
SOCCSK 404

Region 4A added nearly 400 more, C Luzon fell by about 250.
C Visayas and N Mindanao both added about 200 more.
No region reported less than 100.

The NCR at a low 15% of all cases, down nearly 2%.

The top 6 regions made up 63.6% of all cases, down a little.

In the NCR 3 cities were significantly down, 5 were up. The rest about the same.
QC added 73, Pasay 23. Paranaque had one more and maintained its recent higher level of cases.

QC 295, Manila 103, Taguig 101, Paranaque 87 and Pasig 85

Provincially all the NCR bubble provinces increased, Laguna by 140 and Bulacan was up by more than 100.
Elsewhere Batangas had 72 more.
Pangasinan had about 60 less.

Laguna 368. Cavite 332, Bulacan 188 and Rizal 127.

NCR bubble area at 28.6% of all cases, up 2%.

Selected cities:

Bacolod 145, up 23
Baguio 20
CDO 179, up 100!
Cebu 34
Cotabato 32
Davao 175, down 120
IloIlo 125, down 10
GenSan 84, up 25
P Princesa 13, down
Zamboanga 64, down 56

Bohol 121, up nearly 100

Angeles 11, down 34
Tarlac 29, down 75​​​​

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/04/...ntos-june-2021

At last Davao City's Quarantine level upped.

Raffin

About 500 less cases announced yesterday at 6,955. Just two labs late. Positivity slightly lower at 13.2% from 48.7k cases. The backlog included was only 531. Tests on the way lower at 41.2k.
Recoveries at 8.1k. (see below for more on recoveries and long covid).

Deaths again high at 195 with 102 RDs.
It came to the point where the DOH had to say something about these RDs:

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/05/...ines-june52021

A very poor attempt at an explanation but it looks like thousands of people getting covid away from urban areas here are simply not monitored, are assumed to have recovered, maybe to improve the statistics, then later found out to have died. It doesn't bear thinking about. The U Sec does not even promise any action.

Active cases at 59,543
In primary hospitals: Severe at 1.012, up 39 and 774 Critical, down 16.

In the NCR ICU % at 51, up 1 (Nationally 58, up 2)

Regional data: (300 and over)

NCR 1.096
C Luzon 966
4A 896
W Visayas 573
Davao 428
N Mindanao 400
C Visayas 374
Ilocos 366
CARAGA 305

Just one region MIMAROPA was under 100 at 92.
NCR down a little but up at 15.8% of all cases. C Luzon was up more than 250 cases but 4A had nearly 300 less.
Noteworthy that the Illocos region had over 200 more cases than the day before.
W Visayas had 78 more.
N Mindanao had 140 less and SOCCSK had 127 less.

The top 6 regions at 62.7% of all cases, down 1%.

In the NCR 6 cities had significantly more cases and 6 had less.
Caloocan added 58 more than the day before, Pasig 20.
QC added 95 less.

QC 200, Manila 122, Caloocan 109, Taguig 91, Paranaque 77, Makati 76

Provincially in the NCR bubble Bulacan and Rizal had 50 and 31 more cases than the day before.
But Cavite had nearly 200 less and Laguna nearly 100 less.

Laguna 269, Bulacan 240, Rizal 158 and Cavite 143.
Cavite with an unusually low report.

Elsewhere Pangasinan had 48 more at 114.

The NCR bubble was at 27.4% of all cases, down 1%.

For selected cities:

Bacolod 59, down
Baguio 47, up
CDO 127, down over 50
Cebu 43, up
Cotabato 79, up 47
Davao 222, up 47
IloIlo 123
GenSan 80
P Princesa 15
Zamboanga 56, down

Bohol 58, down 63

Angeles 28, up
Tarlac 99, up 70

DOH spox giving out wrong info:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/heal...uced-1.4584636

I have looked and I cannot see any such change recommended for AZ in the UK.
But in Ireland, yes:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/heal...uced-1.4584636

More immunity from a longer interval between AZ has been firmly established.
So is the idea here to avoid vaccine waste when people don't come back? Shelf life 6 months, but much less if vials are opened.
Or they're desperate to get the numbers up?

Face Shields:

https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/natio...d?ocid=BingHPC

The argument that they add something to protection is not one which is used in other areas. So road injuries and fatalities could be greatly reduced if a maximum speed of 30mph was enforced on all roads. Would that be a sensible measure, given the inconvenience?
So is the inconvenience worth it to reduce getting infected and transmitting the virus in outdoor public places? Such evidence that there is is from laboratory experiments, not much from the real world use of face shields, contrary to mask wearing. Then factors such as bad fitting, observational problems, heat etc come in. The Philippines is one of the very few countries making faces shields mandatory outside and in public transport. That should tell them something here.
There is a much stronger argument for requiring them in some indoor spaces eg hospitals.

Recoveries and long covid:



Dr John presenting some data on long covid recently.
With so many in the UK still reporting long covid symptoms after a year I wonder what is happening here. When all the recoveries are announced here are they without any continuing symptoms? Is there any monitoring? I would guess the answers here are generally no to both of those questions.
The UK report said that 19% of people with long covid after a year had their activities limited "a lot".
Interestingly the age group more likely to report symptoms was 35 to 69 years ie people in the workforce.

Internationally:


New cases from June 3 showing a high position (but note lower than Malaysia). Case number was adjusted down 12 from that announced on the day.

Raffin

Yesterday 273 more cases added compared to the day before. Not so up to date as the results included a backlog of nearly 1,500 cases. Three labs late. Positivity the same at 13.2% from 43.4k tests. Tests on the way a lower 41.4k.
Recoveries 7.4k.

Deaths at 166 with 109 of them RDs.

Severe cases 1009, down 3 and Critical 771, also down 3.

NCR ICU % at 51, nationally 58, both unchanged.

Regional data: (300 and over)

4A 1,046
NCR 957
W Visayas 768
C Luzon 757
N Mindanao 467
Cagayan 435
C Visayas 359
CARAGA 323
E Visayas 307

No region was below 100.
The NCR was down about 150 and with only 13.2% of all cases, 4A was up about 150 and C Luzon by over 200 cases.
Other big increases were in W Visayas, up by a little less than 200 and Cagayan, up by over 150.

Top 6 regions at 61.3% of all cases, down 1.4%.

For NCR cities there were no large increase. Manila added 16 and Marikina 11 more over the day before.
Caloocan, Paranaque, Pasig and QC all had about 30 less cases..

Top 6: QC 171, Manila 138, Makati 84, Caloocan 79, Pasig 77, Taguig 69 cases.

NCR bubble at 27.2% of all cases, unchanged.

Provincially Cavite cases rose by over 200 over the day before.
Cavite 355, Laguna 255, Bulacan 195 and Rizal 117.

New Pampanga cases fell by 43 to 106.

For selected cities:

Bacolod 216, up over 150
Baguio 38 down 9
CDO 107, down 20
Cebu 33 down 10
Cotabato 41. down 38
Davao 222, down 24
GenSan 64, down 16
IloIlo 23, down 18
P Princesa up 19
Zamboanga up 15

Bohol 101, up 43

Angeles 73, up 45
Tarlac 80, down 19



Bacolod's main testing centre positivity.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/06/...igh-risk-areas

A difficult balancing act distributing meagre vaccine supplies around the country as the NCR is still at what the OCTA group calls "Moderate risk" with positivity at just under 10% and testing down. We can also safely say that this description also applies to the heavily populated provinces around Manila, including not just Bulacan, the one C Luzon province in the NCR bubble area, but also to the C Luzon province of Pampanga and in the south to Batangas province.