Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2) — The Department of Health (DOH) assured the public it is working with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in addressing the discrepancy in their tallying of COVID-19 deaths.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said, “We have been working with the Philippine Statistics Authority since last year so that we can harmonize data and we’ll be able to address this issue para magkaroon eventually in the coming months ng pagkakapareho ang PSA at saka ang DOH [so eventually in the coming months both the PSA and DOH will agree on] the number of deaths.”
The PSA recently posted a report stating that from January to October 2021, there were 75,285 registered deaths due to COVID-19, of which 51,514 cases were confirmed through laboratory tests. The tally is based on information from the patients’ death certificates.
On the other hand, the DOH death toll from the first fatality in 2020 up to Oct. 31, 2021, reached 43,172.
Vergeire argued that the DOH numbers remain to be the country’s official tally since the data undergo cleaning and validation.
“Ang death certificate, mayroon ‘yang tatlong linya na nakalagay, sinasaad ‘yung mga causes of death: mayroon tayong underlying cause, antecedent cause at saka ‘yung immediate causes of death,” she described, noting,
“Ang ating mga implementing units like local governments, sometimes nailalagay nila pero hindi tama ‘yung pagkakalagay ng kanilang mga immediate at saka underlying causes of death so diyan nagkakaroon ng isyu.”
[Translation: A death certificate has three lines where you input the causes of death: underlying, antecedent and immediate. Our implementing units like local governments sometimes would wrongly put the immeidate and underlying causes of death so that’s where we encounter issues.]
Vergeire added that the DOH always checks the date of death and the “actual” cause of death since there are also some cases of incidental COVID-19. This scenario happens when, for example, a patient who died from injuries suffered from a vehicular accident eventually tested positive for COVID-19.
“Kung halimbawa positibo sila, pero hindi COVID ang cause of death but because they had this vehicular accident,” she said.
[Translation: If for example they tested positive, but the cause of death is not COVID but due to injuries from a vehicular accident]
Though the PSA did not distinguish incidental COVID-19 cases in its report, it did note that its figures account for both confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19.
“The information presented includes deaths that occurred from January to October 2021 based on data files received by the PSA – Civil Registration Service (CRS) from the [Provincial Statistical Offices] as of 29 November 2021. Thus, the figures presented herein are still preliminary and may differ from the final count,” the PSA report stated.
