Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. Credit: Department of Health
MANILA, Philippines — As the total cases of COVID-19 in the country soared past one million, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III believes the public should look at it from a “different angle,” focusing on recoveries instead.
“Well you know, the 1 million cases can be viewed also from a different angle. That we are also going to sooner than later reach a million recoveries,” said Duque in an interview over CNN Philippines.
He added that the country “as a nation” should look for ways to improve its response to the pandemic.
“I’m not saying we are successful,” Duque said.
“All I’m saying is there’s always an opportunity which we grab each time to do things better,” he added.
Duque explained of the currently active cases, which is at 74,623 as of Monday, 96 percent are mild and asymptomatic cases.
The remaining cases on the other hand are moderate cases, while severe and critical cases only account for 1 percent of the active cases.
“So we have to look at it from the more optimistic lens of getting a high recovery rate at more than 90 percent,” Duque said.
Furthermore, the health secretary explained that the Department of Health is continuing to expand its health systems capacities to match the increasing caseload of COVID-19 cases.
On Monday, Duque said he believes the modified enhanced community quarantine should be extended for another one to two weeks due to the fact that healthcare capacity has yet to improve significantly and that the utilization of intensive care units (ICU) in some cities remains at critical risk.
Duque said that he will discuss his position with the IATF on Tuesday afternoon.
The country has a total of 1,006,428 total cases of COVID-19, as of April 26, with recoveries at 914,952, and a death toll at 16,853.
RELATED STORIES
Duque believes MECQ in NCR Plus should be extended for 1-2 weeks
Total COVID-19 cases in PH breach 1-M mark with 8,929 new infections