‘Congratulations Philippines!’: Palace declares ‘beating’ UP’s COVID-19 cases forecast

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Tuesday congratulated the Philippines for “beating” the prediction of researchers from the University of the Philippines (UP) that the country would have 40,000 COVID-19 cases by the end of June.

“Wala pong katotohanan ‘yung 10,000. One thousand plus lang po ang ating backlog, which means we did not hit 40,000 [COVID-19 cases] or we will not hit 40,000 by end of June,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in an online briefing.

(There is no truth that we have 10,000 backlogs. We only have one thousand plus backlogs, which means we did not hit or we will not hit 40,000 by the end of June.)

“Today is the last day na pala, ano ba ang sinasabi ko. Panalo na tayo, we beat the UP prediction po. We beat it, so congratulations Philippines, let’s do it again in July,” he went on.

(Today is the last day, what am I saying. We have won. We beat the UP prediction. We beat it so congratulations Philippines, let’s do it again in July.)

A group of researchers from UP earlier projected the number of COVID-19 cases reaching 40,000 by the end of June.

As of Monday, the Philippines logged 36,438 COVID-19 cases with 1,255 deaths and 9,956 recoveries.

Also on Monday, the COVID-19 situationer of the Department of Health (DOH) indicates that the country’s “testing backlogs” was at 3,068 as of June 28.

Then on Tuesday, June 30, DOH reported 1,080 new COVID-19 cases, including 858 that were tagged as “fresh”, driving the country’s total caseload to 37, 514.

A new study from UP projected that COVID-19 infections in the country may reach 60,000 by the end of July.

The study indicated that cases in Metro Manila may surge up to 27,000 while Cebu province may record up to 15,000 cases by July 31.

Earlier, Roque said the Philippines is “winning” in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Palace official, the lockdown imposed by the government since mid-March saved the country from having up to 3.6 million COVID-19 infections.

Roque also assured that the government is “in control” of the health crisis, adding that President Rodrigo Duterte did his best in responding to the pandemic.

KGA