Fewer deaths, more recoveries attributed to PH doctors getting more acquainted with coronavirus

MANILA, Philippines — The observed decline in the number of deaths and the spike in recoveries from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country may be attributed to the fact that doctors are getting more “acquainted” with the disease, allowing them to better manage the condition of infected patients.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Thursday said that as the disease has no cure nor vaccine yet, doctors could only attend and give treatment to the symptoms of the disease, which is what she called “symptomatic and supportive management.”

But as doctors are getting acquainted with this virus, Vergeire said they now know what to do and how to manage the disease, compared to when the disease hit the first few patients during the early stage of the outbreak, where all in the medical community were practically caught flat-footed by the disease.

“Gumagaling na tayo sa pag manage sa sakit na ito. As we move along with this pandemic, our doctors now know, mas madami silang nagagawa na at mas appropriate na ang nagiging management of our cases because mas marami na tayong kaalaman ngayon,” she told reporters in an online press conference.

(We are getting better at managing this disease. As we move along with this pandemic, our doctors now know, they can do more and they can appropriately manage the cases because they know better.)

“With the evolution of all of this in science, alam na ng mga doctor natin kung paano i-manage itong mga pasyente sa mga hospital, therefore, mas kakaunti na ang mga namamatay kasi nama-manage na nang maayos,” Vergeire added.

(With the evolution of all of this in science, our doctors now know how to manage patients in hospitals and there are fewer deaths because they are being managed well.)

However, she noted that the spike of recoveries could be because the recovered patients were cases logged in the last month. The Department of Health (DOH) earlier said that it takes three to six weeks for an individual to recover from COVID-19.

On May 13, the DOH recorded 145 new COVID-19 recovered patients, so far the highest spike of recoveries in a single day since the disease was first recorded in the country last January.

On the other hand, the highest increase in the number of deaths was recorded last April 12, with 50 fatalities reported.

To date, there are 11,618 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country. Of the number, 2,251 have recovered while 772 succumbed to the disease.

EDV