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MANILA, Philippines — The average number of deaths decreased to three per day in September from the 17 per day average in August, said the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday.
DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire reported the fatality count during a press briefing, explaining that the weekly and daily reported deaths do not necessarily coincide with the reported month.
“Kaya nito pong August nitong September, bagama’t nagtatala minsan 200 sa isang araw, ‘pag tiningnan ang exact date of death, it’s not going to coincide with that specific month,” said Vergeire.
(This August and September, although sometimes 200 deaths were recorded in one day when looking at the exact date of death, it’s not going to coincide with that specific month.)
“Ngayon pong September we are averaging three deaths per day, compared to August where we averaged 17 deaths per day,” she added.
(Now, in September, we are averaging three deaths per day, compared to August, where we averaged 17 deaths per day.)
Vergeire said DOH death reports have always been late because the department on the ground validates every death.
Further, the acting DOH chief explained that the country’s case fatality rate remains below two percent at 1.6 percent.
Slight spike in COVID cases due to increased mobility
Vergeire acknowledged the recent slight spike in COVID-19 cases, but blamed it on more mobility as some sectors, like education, have decided to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Talagang expectedly tataas ang kaso because kapag tumaas ang mobility, transmission will happen. Mag increase ang transmission rate,” she explained.
(It is expected that cases will increase because the transmission will happen when mobility increases. Therefore, the transmission rate will increase.)
When asked whether the spike was connected to the recent easing of the face mask policy outdoors, Vergeire said it is still too early to directly correlate the number of infections to the new masking rules.
“Sa ngayon hindi pa ho natin makikita yung direct link nito dito sa masking mandate dito sa mga pagtaas ng kaso sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng bansa,” said Vergeire.
(As of now, we can’t see the direct link of the rise in cases to the masking mandate in different parts of the country.)
She said the DOH doesn’t know if optional masking was responsible because it’s analyzing its data.
“Sa ngayon wala pa tayong bagong projections na ginagawa, it will take us around two weeks before we can start doing the data again, sa ngayon hindi pa natin makikita ‘yung totoong epekto since as we know we also correlate this to the incubation period of the disease,” said Vergeire.
(Until we start analyzing the data again in two weeks, we won’t see the real effect since we also correlate this to the incubation period of the disease.)
As of September 19, the country currently has 27,686 active infections of COVID-19, with 62,587 deaths. —with reports from Trisha Manalaysay, Inquirer.net trainee