That majority of Filipinos remain worried that they or someone in their immediate family could be infected with COVID-19 is understandable.
According to the April Social Weather Stations survey, where 1,440 respondents were interviewed face-to-face, around 9 in 10 adult Filipinos, or 88 percent, have said they are “a great deal worried” or “somewhat worried” about catching the virus, while 12 percent were “a little worried” or “not worried.”
The results have a plus or minus 2.6 percent sampling error margin for national percentages and a plus or minus 5.2 percent sampling error margin for subnational areas of Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
And the other day, the OCTA Research Group said 10 provinces have registered “very high” COVID-19 positivity rates or more than 20 percent as of July 22 compared to the July 16 data.
The worry remains up as the number of people testing positive in the Metro Manila, where 13 million of the country’s 111 million population live, had increased further at the end of the previous week, based on a report by the OCTA Research group.
OCTA said Metro Manila’s positivity rate, which measures the number of positive results out of the total tests conducted, jumped from 14.6 percent Wednesday last to 16 percent two days later.
The Geneva-based World Health organization recommends a positivity rate of five percent or below to effectively manage the pandemic.
With the high positivity rate and the lower number of tests conducted compared to previous heaves, OCTA fellow Guido David said the number of actual cases may even be higher.
Figures from the Department of Health have also suggested a billowing, with 3,389 new cases, with 1,169 from the congested metropolis, up from the previous day’s 2,828, which included 1,002 in the National Capital Region.
David has said the growth rate—which indicates the weekly change in average new cases—further slowed down to 15 percent.
A negative growth rate would suggest that the number of new cases is on the downtrend.
The SWS survey noted that concern was much grater than the worries about previous viruses like Ebola, Swine Flu, Bird Flu and Severe Acute respiratory Syndrome.
Compared to the previous year, the hope that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is over was 33 percent higher and nearly as high as the 44 percent when SWS first asked the question in May 2020, two months after the strict lockdown was imposed.