Lower case fatality rate for COVID-19 recorded in June at 4.24% — DOH

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) recorded a 4.24 percent case fatality rate for coronavirus infections in June, which is lower than the case fatality rate reported in May this year.

“Mula sa case fatality rate na 5.52 percent, nung May 31, bumaba na po ang case fatality rate natin sa 4.24 percent, as of June 13. Mas mababa po ito sa kasalukuyang case fatality rate ng buong mundo,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online press conference on Sunday.

(From the case fatality rate of 5.52 percent on May 31, the case fatality rate was down to 4.24 percent as of June 13. This is a decrease in the current case fatality rate in the world.)

Vergeire said the global average for case fatality rate was at about 6 percent.

Dr. John Wong, epidemiologist working for the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases, said the decrease in case fatality showed that “compared to the total number of cases, fewer cases are dying” which means more lives are being saved.

The Encyclopedia Britannica said the case fatality rate can be derived by “dividing the number of deaths from a specified disease over a defined period of time by the number of individuals diagnosed with the disease during that time; the resulting ratio is then multiplied by 100 to yield a percentage.”

Reporting of COVID-19 deaths

Wong said they also found an improvement in the reporting of deaths, citing that the recording of deaths had only a seven-day delay from 22-day delay.

“The reporting of deaths actually improved, from a high of 22 days delay from date of death to reporting; right now, it is a seven day delay,” Wong said.

He also emphasized that the 22 new deaths recorded on Saturday did not mean that they were current deaths. The actual date of the latest deaths were in April.

He also explained that there is a delay because DOH has to validate information coming from the local government units.

In addition, Wong also noted that deaths increased over the past two days but the “media is still 10 per day.”

To date, Philippines posted 25,392 cases of COVID-19 with 1,074 fatalities and 5,706 recoveries.