MANILA – The Philippines has recorded an average of only three Covid-19 deaths per day this month so far, lower than the 17 fatalities daily count in August, a health official said Tuesday.
In a media briefing, Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said current data may still show 200 confirmed deaths per day due to delay in reporting.
“We have been transparent on this, sinasabi namin sa inyo na mayroon tayong (we tell you that there are) delays in our reporting of deaths because deaths are still being validated on the ground,” she said.
“Our case fatality up until now is still 1.6 percent. Hindi po iyan tumaas ng 2 percent, tayo po ay naki-keep natin at that minimum, ‘yung ating mga namamatay dito sa ating bansa (It never went over 2 percent, we are able to keep the deaths in our country at that minimum),” she added.
While the country’s Covid-19 deaths remain low, Vergeire said the DOH does not want any fatality due to the infection to happen as the agency tries to prevent deaths and severe and critical cases through vaccination.
Citing data from Google Covid-19 mobility trends, Vergeire said there was an increase in cases due to more people going out as various sectors like face-to-face classes have reopened.
“Nakita natin talaga after the middle of August, third week of August, tumaas na ‘yung mobility patterns dito sa (We really saw after the middle of August, third week of August, the mobility patterns were higher in) Metro Manila and even in the other regions,” she said.
She urged those yet to receive their primary series of Covid-19 jabs to get the vaccine and the fully vaccinated to receive their booster doses as higher mobility would mean transmission of infection.
As of Sept. 18, almost 72.9 million have been fully vaccinated. Of the tally, around 6.8 million are senior citizens, 9.9 million are adolescents, and 4.9 million are children.
Almost 18.9 million have received their first booster dose and almost 2.7 million have received their second booster shot. (PNA)
