The Philippines is projected to have 8,000 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) daily by the end of the March, according to the latest projections of an independent research group.
In an interview over TeleRadyo, OCTA Research fellow Professor Guido David said the country is estimated to even reach 18,000 to 20,000 new cases daily by mid-April.
The research fellow also projected that Metro Manila would have 5,000 to 6,000 new infections daily by month-end.
Moreover, David noted that daily COVID-19 cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) might balloon to 14,000 cases per day by mid-April if the current reproduction rate, or the average number of persons who may be infected by one COVID-19 positive individual, will continue.
The projections, he said, were based on a reproduction number of 1.9.
The country reported on March 13 its highest number of new COVID-19 cases this year at 5,000, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 616,611 cases.
NO FEAR-MONGERING
David said they were not trying scare the public with their projections, noting that the data they are presenting are based on science.
“Hindi tayo nananakot. Sinasabi lang natin, ‘yan ang science. Wala namang fear-mongering sa science,” he said.
“Yung sinasabi lang natin na ito ‘yung maaaring mangyari. At ‘yung projections namin, nagkatotoo na. In fact, mas mabilis na siya ngayon kaysa doon sa original naming projection. Kaya, nag-readjust tayo ng projection,” he added.
David explained that their group are coming up with such projections to anticipate the things that could happen in the future.
