(FILE) RICHARD A. REYES / INQUIRER
MANILA, Philippines — Deaths triggered by COVID-19 are increasing in August, but the proportion of fatalities among the cases is not as high as last year, the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday.
Dr. Alethea De Guzman, OIC-Director of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, said in an online media briefing that the country reached 135 average deaths per day in April—the highest since the pandemic started. It was in April when the country also saw a surge in coronavirus infections.
Deaths then went down to 123 per day in May, 105 in June, and 94 in July, but picked up again at 109 from August 1 to 25.
“For our mortality, we are seeing our deaths per day increasing,” De Guzman said, noting that a sudden increase in fatalities in Metro Manila was likewise observed in the first week of August.
“Upon the end of July, we really saw an increase in deaths. Initially it was in Region 7 subalit (but) more recently, nakikita natin na tumataas na siya sa (we saw it is also increasing in) NCR and Calabarzon,” she added.
However, De Guzman noted that the case fatality rate (CFR), or the percentage of people who die among the confirmed cases, remains at 1.73 even with the renewed surge in infections this month.
“Even with the increase in cases this year, our cumulative CFR has actually been maintained at 1.73, and our analysis of that is even with more cases, yes, we see deaths but the proportion of deaths to cases is not higher than what we saw in the previous year,” she explained.
“Hopefully that’s the result of improvement of our critical care capacities,” she added.
The country has so far confirmed a total of 1.88 million COVID-19 cases, of which 125,378 remain active as of Wednesday. On Monday, the DOH registered 18,332 additional cases, the highest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic.
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