Duque claims ‘fresh’ COVID-19 cases in NCR down; DOH data shows otherwise

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Tuesday claimed that “fresh” cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Metro Manila is on the downtrend, but data from the Department of Health showed otherwise.

During a televised Cabinet briefing, Duque said that fresh cases, or test results that came out and validated within the last three days, in Metro Manila on June 8 registered only 114 cases.

“Ganun pa rin sa NCR dahil ito ang epicenter ng ating pandemic. Hindi naman siya tumaas, in fact mas mababa pa nga siya (NCR is still the epicenter of our pandemic. The number of cases did not rise, in fact, this is lower),” he said.

“Pababa pa rin ang bilang natin sa NCR (The number of cases in NCR is decreasing),” he added.

DOH data, however, showed that the number of fresh cases recorded in Metro Manila starting June 1 are as follows:

June 8 – 114

June 7 – 67

June 6 – 104

June 5 – 24

June 4 – 114

June 3 – 68

June 2 – 33

June 1 – 94

But Duque said the seemingly increasing trend of fresh COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila starting June 1 should not be correlated in the easing of quarantine protocols.

The metropolis transitioned to general community quarantine (GCQ) from modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) starting June 1. Prior to the MECQ, Metro Manila had to endure a two-month hard lockdown due to the increasing number of infected individuals.

The DOH is set to release a new set of data analytics on Wednesday to show the impact of loosened quarantine protocols in the metro and in other areas, Duque said.

This will also be the basis of whether quarantine measures in the metro should be further eased or be reinstated.

“Hintayin na lang natin ‘yung magiging result ng report ng data analytics expert group (We should wait for the result of the report of the data analytics group),” Duque said.

To date, the Philippines has a total of 22,474 COVID-19 cases, with 1,011 deaths and 4,637 recoveries.

EDV