DOH apologizes for errors in daily reports

The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday apologized for the mistakes in its daily situationer reports that made the rounds on social media after some netizens noticed an erroneous bar graph.

“Thank you to all who pointed this out. Rest assured that we, at the DOH, are continuously working and striving to improve the quality and accuracy of our materials,” the department said on Facebook. 

In a statement, the DOH also stressed that its data is reliant on submissions from healthcare facilities and local government units (LGUs).

“The timeliness and integrity of the national data are only as good as the submission of our partners on the ground—laboratories, hospitals, and LGUs,” it said, adding that reporting delays have been “significantly reduced” over the past few months.

Earlier on Sunday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the number of new deaths has been rising in recent days due to the delayed reporting of fatalities by LGUs. 

She explained that out of the 22 new fatalities reported on June 13, only four actually died in the month of June.

Despite delays in the reporting of data, the DOH claimed that the Philippines’ case fatality rate went down in June. — BM, GMA News