THE Department of Health on Tuesday reported nearly 300 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to bring the total to over 5,000.
Based on the latest COVID-19 Case Bulletin, the DOH said the total number of cases in the country is now at 5,223 with the addition of 291.
Twenty new COVID-19 fatalities were also reported, or a total of 335, and 53 new recoveries, bringing the total to 295.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the youngest COVID-19 fatality is a 29-day-old male from Batangas. She said the infant was brought to a medical facility after experiencing shortness of breath and pneumonia. The cause of death is late onset sepsis due to severe respiratory infection and COVID-19.
COVID-19, which originated in China, has infected some 1.77 persons globally, with at least 111,600 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
Among Southeast Asian nations, the Philippines has the second highest number of cases after Malaysia as of Monday.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, concurrent spokesman of the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said case doubling time of COVID-19 cases has started to “slow down” even while the number of infected persons in the country continued to increase.
Nograles said experts presented some data showing an improvement in the coronavirus situation in the country since the first reported infection in the country in January.
“Iyung case doubling time ng Pilipinas ay bumagal na — it’s less than three days. Iyong positivity rate is also slowly decreasing and iyon percentage of new cases is bending downwards (The case doubling time of the Philippines has slowed down -— it’s less than three days. The positivity rate is also slowly decreasing and the percentage of new cases is bending downwards),” he said.
The said parameters are part of data being considered by the IATF in determining if the lockdown being enforced in Luzon should be extended, lifted, or partially lifted.
He said experts also presented that under the worst-case scenario, the peak of COVID infection could reach 1.9 to 8.3 million Filipinos based on different models, if countermeasures like the lockdown had not been put in place.
The DOH has launched its COVID-19 tracker, which can be accessed through its link: http://www.doh.gov.ph/covid19tracker.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the launch of the case tracker is in line with their commitment to promote transparency and accountability.
“The new COVID-19 tracker is not perfect and we hope to add more information in the succeeding days, but it is our fervent hope that this responds to the information needs and the call for transparency from our citizens,” said Duque.
The revamped tracker features additional information on the epidemiology of COVID-19 in the country, COVID-19 testing, health facilities, and availability of personal protective equipment (PPE).
The public also can now view data on the laboratory testing capacities of the DOH-accredited laboratories, including the total number of tests and unique individuals tested.
The DOH also urged hospital administrators to make use of the new DataCollect app to provide the government a more accurate picture of the situation in every medical facility.
The DataCollect app gathers daily data from hospitals and stakeholders, such as essential resources and supplies, availability of hospital beds, isolation rooms, ICU beds and mechanical ventilators, and human resource needs. The application is also expected to be able to accurately calculate the projected need of PPE sets, and link to our logistics offices for delivery of supplies.
Duque said this is in accordance with the “Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act” or Republic Act No. 11332, wherein hospitals are mandated to utilize such a system of data collection.
