Why DOH, PSA tallies of COVID-19 deaths differ

An official of the Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday explained why the agency and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) had different tallies of COVID-19 deaths last year.

Preliminary figures from the PSA showed a total of 27,967 deaths due to COVID-19 as of December 2020, with “COVID-19 with virus identified” accounting for 8,209 cases. A total of 19,758 deaths were attributed to “COVID-19 virus not identified.”

The DOH, meanwhile, reported 9,244 deaths as of December 31.

Asked for an explanation, DOH Epidemiology Bureau director Alethea de Guzman said the department only includes confirmed COVID-19 deaths in its tally.

“We’re only reporting the confirmed cases who became fatalities versus PSA which is reporting all the deaths which have been diagnosed by a physician as having either suspect, probable, or confirmed COVID [case],” she said in an online briefing.

De Guzman said the DOH is also monitoring deaths among suspect and probable cases.

Heart diseases, neoplasms, and cerebrovascular diseases remain the three leading causes of death in the Philippines, according to the PSA. Suicide deaths rose 26% to 3,529 cases last year from 2,808 in 2019.

“Deaths of Filipinos abroad are not yet included in the data, only those who died in the country but whose usual residence is abroad,” the PSA said.—LDF, GMA News