Cebu province and Metro Cebu remain under low risk classification for Covid-19 as the no mask policy experiment remains implemented for over two weeks now, the OCTA Research Group said Wednesday.

In a message to reporters, OCTA Research Group fellow Ranjit Rye said new cases in Cebu and Metro Cebu (Cebu City, Mandaue, and Lapu Lapu) remain low.

“Although the trend in new cases, which peaked on July 31 at more than 200 new cases per day, has plateaued to baseline levels of 40 new cases per day over the past week, the level of cases is very low based on average daily attack rate (ADAR) of 0.77 or less than one per day per 100,000 as of September 27,” he said.

The whole province of Cebu has a positivity rate of 5.0 percent with an average of 730 tests per day as of September 26.

The positivity rate refers to the number of individuals who test positive for Covid-19 in a certain area and a given period.

“The low positivity rate confirms that infections have decreased to low levels in Cebu. The plateauing of new cases is reflected by a reproduction number of 0.99 which is close to one,” Rye said.

The healthcare utilization rate in Cebu and Metro Cebu remained low at 27 percent with an intensive care unit occupancy rate of 12 percent as of Sept. 26.

“We are surprised with the data from Cebu thus far. We don’t know if this trend will change. We are also surprised that it’s bucking the trends, especially in the NCR (National Capital Region) where there is a surge in new cases,” Rye said. (PNA)