DOH notes lower COVID-19 deaths in October

FILE PHOTO: Dr.Alethea De Guzman, OIC-Director of Depratment of Health’s Epidemiology Bureau. INQUIRER.net/Cathy Miranda

MANILA, Philippines — The average daily COVID-19 fatality count decreased from 179 in September to 73 in October, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Tuesday.

Data from the DOH showed that an average of 103 COVID patients died per day in July and 174 died per day in August.

“Looking at mortalities, we see a more continuous and rapid decline in our deaths. We are only averaging 73 deaths as of the end of October,” Dr. Alethea De Guzman, OIC-Director of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, said in an online media briefing.

A total of 43,043 patients have died due to COVID-19, based on the data presented by De Guzman. The DOH said this means that an average of 70 patients succumbs to the disease each day.

According to De Guzman, the major factors that contributed to the decline in deaths are increased vaccination coverage and better health system capacity.

“Malaki ang dinami ng mga kama lalo ng ICU beds para sa COVID at naimprove ang ating (We have added many beds for COVID-19 patients and there were improvements in our) referral and triage systems, such that we were able to appropriately refer the moderate, severe and critical to our health facilities, and those with mild or symptomatic diseases are in community isolation facilities,” she noted.

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