THE registered deaths due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) sharply dropped from January to September 2022 against the number of fatalities recorded in the previous year, data released yesterday by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
According to the PSA, while COVID-19 still ranks among the leading causes of death in the country, the number of registered deaths fell by 84.75 percent to 13,883 from 91,034 in the first nine months in 2021.
It accounted for 3.3 percent of the total registered deaths from January to September 2022.
In the same period in 2021, it had a share of 13.8 percent.
The PSA data also showed that deaths caused by COVID-19, virus identified and unidentified combined, ranked eighth in the first nine months of 2022.
Topping the list of other causes of death are ischemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and neoplasms.
These are followed by diabetes mellitus, hypertensive diseases, pneumonia, and other heart diseases.
“Figures in this release, specifically for deaths due to COVID-19, may differ from the one released by the Department of Health (DOH) because the figures in this release were obtained from the certificates of death, particularly the descriptions written on the medical certificate portion therein as reviewed by the health officer of the local government unit concerned. On the other hand, the figures released by the DOH were obtained through a surveillance system,” the PSA said.
The PSA added that the figures for deaths due to COVID-19 refer to both confirmed and probable cases as of registration.
COVID-19-virus identified is used when COVID-19 is confirmed by a laboratory test, while COVID-19-virus not identified is used for suspected or probable cases as well as clinically-epidemiologically diagnosed COVID-19 cases where testing was not completed or was inconclusive.
