PSA: Fewer registered deaths in January-June 2020 than last year

Despite the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of registered deaths in the first six months of 2020 was lower compared to the same period last year, according to data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Friday.

Based on the PSA’s preliminary numbers from January to June, registered deaths reached 259,426.

This was lower than the registered deaths in the first half of 2019 at 309,010.

The Philippines has been reeling from the COVID-19 threat since the first case was recorded in January.

As of July 30, there were 89,374 total cases, of which 1,983 had died while 65,064 had recovered.

In terms of daily average, the PSA said January deaths recorded the highest with 1,677 average deaths per day in the past five years or from 2015 to 2019, which translates to 70 deaths per hour.

“On the other hand, the lowest daily average number of deaths occurred in June with an average of 1,537 deaths per day, equivalent to about 65 deaths per hour,” it said.

Meanwhile, the first two months of 2020 have already exceeded their corresponding monthly averages in the last five years, with 53,078 deaths for January 2020, and 45,730 deaths for February 2020.

Meanwhile, the relatively fewer registered deaths in June 2020 was expected since not all deaths were registered yet as per the reglementary period, according to the PSA.

The Statistics body said the data on deaths were obtained from the timely and late registered deaths at the Office of the City/Municipal Registrars throughout the country and submitted to the Office of the Civil Registrar General through the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-Provincial Offices (POs) for encoding. — DVM, GMA News