MANILA, Philippines — The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) death rate in the country is declining despite the surge in the number of confirmed cases of infection, the Department of Health said on Tuesday.
“We can see that the deaths here in the country are slowly going down. It’s really decreasing. We have only 2.9 percent case fatality rate compared to when we started when it was more than 10 percent,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.
DOH Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire (Screengrabbed from DOH Facebook)
Vergeire, however, warned that this surge in new cases should prompt the public more cautious.
“These numbers that we are having right now should make people more cautious. This is not just because we are testing more but because there are really clustering of cases that we have been identifying for these past days and there is really community transmission,” she said.
Death rate and case management
As of Monday, the death toll in the country due to the illness was at 1,303.
The latest reported fatality rate was lower than the 4.24 rate recorded by the DOH last June 13.
Vergeire attributed the decrease in the fatality rate to the improvement on how COVID-19 cases in the country are being handled.
“When we tried to look at our experience in the country, we are seeing great improvement in how cases are being managed,” said the health official.
“We are seeing lesser deaths because we can see that clinicians now already have that much evidence and different information for them to be able to manage and support patients who are severe and critical and are being admitted in our hospitals,” Vergeire added.
She also noted that almost 96 percent of COVID-19 cases in the country are mild.
On Monday, the DOH reported over 2,000 additional cases of infection for the second straight day, bringing the nationwide tally to 46,333.
A total of 1,258 “fresh” cases and 841 “late” cases were reported on Monday.
The total number of patients who jumped to 12,185.