Atty. Joey Lina The trend is disturbing and our scientific researchers see it as a portent of horrific times ahead. For three days since last Friday, the three highest single-day tallies so far this year of COVID cases nationwide were reported – 4,578 new cases on Friday, 5,000 on Saturday, and 4,899 on Sunday. The 5,000 new infections last March 13 is the largest single-day number recorded in around seven months, or since August 26, 2020, when the daily recorded number of new cases hit 5,277. And the numbers are projected to keep rising, even way beyond the highest daily tally so far of 6,958 cases reported on August 10, 2020. OCTA Research fellow Professor Guido David was my guest last Sunday in my Teleradyo program Sagot Ko ‘Yan, and he said that the daily COVID infections could reach 5,000 to 6,000 in Metro Manila alone by the end of this month, based on a 1.95 reproduction rate.