Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 4) — As authorities see a slow decrease in the country’s COVID-19 cases, President Rodrigo Duterte said that the country is doing good on its pandemic response compared with other countries.
“Compared with other countries, which is not really the time to make comparisons, but we are doing good in the fight against COVID,” Duterte said in his late-night address Monday, even calling Health Secretary Francisco Duque III a “hero” of the fight against the coronavirus.
He said this as Duque was giving updates on the country’s latest COVID-19 situation.
On Monday, the Department of Health reported 7,255 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total tally to 1,062,225. Of this, 69,466 are active cases.
During the televised Cabinet meeting, Duque noted that 2,402 of the new cases were from Metro Manila, 1,419 from CALABARZON, 839 from Central Luzon, and 2,595 from other regions.
He also noted that in the week of April 26 to May 2, average daily reported cases fell to 8,227 from 8,782 in the previous week. However, he said they still hope to reduce this to the January-February level at 1,700.
The Health chief also reported that the national two-week growth rate of cases has declined to -15% from 11% three to four weeks ago, while the national average daily attack rate went down to around 7 per 100,000 individuals in the week of April 18 to May 1 from 9.21 per 100,000 individuals during April 4 to 17.
Meanwhile, Duque said fatality rate is at 1.65%, with total deaths reaching 17,525, and recovery rate at 91.81%, with total recovered patients at 975,234.
The Department of Health earlier said that it has seen a slow decrease in the number of cases, specifically in Metro Manila in the past two weeks. The OCTA research group also said they are seeing cases in the region drop to 2,800 from an average of 3,144 starting next week.
The NCR Plus, which includes Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal, has been under modified enhanced community quarantine for around a month now after being under the strictest quarantine classification due to the surge in COVID-19 cases that is overwhelming health facilities.
One of the causes of the spike, according to experts, is the presence of new variants that are more transmissible. Duque said based on 5,917 samples tested as of May 2, 18.17% were the B.1.351, or the variant first detected in South Africa, making it the most common lineage in the country. This is followed by the B.1.1.63 or variant with Hong Kong lineage (17.81%), and the B.1.1.7 or the United Kingdom lineage (16%).
During the said period, authorities are working on strengthening contact tracing and testing efforts to control the spread of the virus, as well as increasing capacity of health care facilities to accommodate patients.
Based on data from the Johns Hopkins University, the Philippines is 25th among countries with the most number of COVID-19 cases worldwide, and 28th among those with the most number of deaths due to the virus.
However, focusing in Southeast Asia, the country is second to Indonesia in terms of said factors, with the latter having around 1.6 million total cases and some 45,000 deaths.
