DOH aims to bring down NCR’s daily COVID-19 cases to below 500

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is aiming to bring down the number of new daily cases in Metro Manila to less than 500, around the same figures reported before the surge in March.

Dr. Alethea De Guzman, OIC-Director of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, said Thursday that an average of 1,049 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Metro Manila from May 19 to 25.

This is lower than the 1,367 average cases reported from May 12 to 18, and the 5,537 cases during the peak from March 29 to April 4.

“What we want to achieve is to bring down that number to less than 500, because our average cases per day is only 431 noong (from) January hanggang (until) February,” De Guzman told an online media forum.

Meanwhile, other areas in the NCR Plus have reported 865 average new daily COVID-19 cases from May 19 to 25.

This is lower than the 1,076 average cases from May 12 to 18, and 2,297 during the peak from April 9 to 15.

“The goal is around 198 cases per day lamang (only),” De Guzman said.

Nationwide, the average of daily reported cases from May 9 to 15 is 5,130. De Guzman noted this is already half of the 10,849 daily cases during the peak from April 9 to 15.

The health official earlier said the DOH wants to bring down the new cases per day in the country to less than 2,000, similar to the figures reported before the surge of infections.

The country now has a total of 48,109 active COVID-19 cases, including the additional 6,483 coronavirus cases added to the tally on Thursday.

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JE