Even in antigen tests, COVID-19 positivity rate down – DOH

MANILA, Philippines — Fewer people taking the COVID-19 antigen tests are turning up positive for infection this year, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the decline in the positivity rate for COVID-19 is reflected in records showing that out of the 694,314 antigen tests performed from January until April 2 this year, only 105,000 yielded positive results.

To illustrate the downward trend, Vergeire said that in January, only 90,000 out of the 355,000 people reported to have taken the antigen test turned up positive for the virus; while in February, only 7,500 out of the 209,000 who took the same test were positive for infection.

In March, the number of positive cases decreased further to 1,400 relative to the 126,000 antigen tests performed.

“If you look at the data in January, February and March, you would see that the decline in positivity rate continues even for antigen testing,” Vergeire said.

She underscored that in January, the positivity rate for antigen test was 25 percent but this went down to 1.12 percent last month.

On April 1 and 2, some 2,900 antigen test results were reported to DOH with only 700 of them being positive for COVID-19.

Last week, the DOH reported a decline in the positivity rate for COVID-19 cases tested through RT-PCR.

Data showed that from March 29 to April 4, the positivity rate was at 1.8 percent, lower than the 2.1 positivity rate posted in the previous week.

Based on the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), having below five percent positivity rate indicates that a country can manage its COVID-19 caseload.