Chances are, you or someone you know is sick with flu-like symptoms today. It’s not just in your head, and it’s not a coincidence: the COVID-19 positivity rate, aka the rate at which people are getting infected, has skyrocketed in Manila and the rest of the country in the last two weeks—and it’s apparently gotten so crazy to the point that a Canada-based researcher and professor pronounced that the country was “breaking all records.”
Dr. Madhu Pai, a professor and the research chair on epidemiology and global health at McGill University in Canada, tweeted a screenshot from Our World in Data that revealed the astounding spike in cases in the Philippines, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University CSSE COVID-19 data as of January 8.
From nearly flattening the curve in June 2021, the graph showed a steep spike by January 7 this year.
Philippines breaking all records pic.twitter.com/frqyjB67sI
— Madhu Pai, MD, PhD (@paimadhu) January 9, 2022
Meanwhile, Our World in Data showed a growth rate of 6,091.75 percent in COVID-19 cases in the Philippines over the last two weeks as of January 9.
Although the Department of Health has not confirmed local community transmission of the Omicron variant, it recorded 28,707 new COVID-19 cases, with 21,819 infections logged on January 7—the highest single-day tally since September 18 last year.
READ: Police to file raps against ‘Poblacion girl’ who skipped quarantine to party in Makati
Reader Interactions