Dr. Alethea de Guzman, a medical specialist with the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, told a media forum that the average daily death count started to decrease in September, with 59, then dipped to 42 in October, 33 in November, 24 in December, 17 in January, and six from Feb. 1 to 10.
But the deaths reported by the DOH every day are higher, De Guzman said, because they include deaths in previous months that have not been immediately validated.
Incomplete information
De Guzman said validation was necessary because the information received by the DOH about some deaths were incomplete, such as missing date or cause of death.
And the deaths, she said, did not occur in the last 24 hours but earlier, and “reported only now.”
“The trend in the number of deaths in the country is decreasing,” she said.
According to de Guzman, the average number of deaths per day per month peaked in July and August last year, with 53 and 66 fatalities, respectively.
She said the information matched DOH data that showed the daily count of additional coronavirus infections was highest in mid-August, with 6,216 on Aug. 14.
As of Thursday, 11,469 people in the Philippines have died of COVID-19, 2.11 percent of the 543,282 cases recorded since the start of the pandemic last year.
The death toll as of Thursday included the latest fatalities, counted at 68. This figure included 52 cases that the DOH said had been previously recorded as recoveries but had turned out to be deaths after validation.
Downward trend
The DOH said 423 more patients had recovered, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 500,335.
After the deaths and recoveries, the country still had 31,478 active cases, of which 87.6 percent were mild, 6.9 percent asymptomatic, 0.62 percent moderate, 2.4 percent severe, and 2.5 percent critical.
The DOH also noted a downward trend in new cases in the country, except in Cagayan Valley, Central Visayas, Soccsksargen and Caraga.
De Guzman also said the DOH had found the 35-year-old man infected with the more contagious variant of the coronavirus in Quezon City, where he was already in isolation.
One of 25 Filipinos who had tested positive for the UK variant, the man had been first reported to be from Liloan, in Cebu province.
De Guzman said the man had been interviewed for the identification of the people he had contacted before he was taken into isolation.
She said 22 of the 25 UK variant patients had already recovered, one had died, and two were still battling the disease.
Health officials, she said, have yet to determine the source of the infection of two of the patients. —WITH A REPORT FROM PATRICIA DENISE M. CHIU