Duterte claims Philippines doing well vs. COVID-19, hails Duque a hero

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said the government's COVID-19 pandemic response was doing well compared to that of other countries.

In his Talk to the Nation briefing, Duterte also called Health Secretary Francisco Duque III a "hero."

"Compared with other countries, which is not really the time to do comparisons, but we are doing good in the fight against COVID and Secretary Duque is the hero here," Duterte said.

Duterte made the remark as Duque presented the current situation of COVID-19 infections in the Philippines.

He asked that the thousands of new cases recorded in the country be viewed against the higher number of recoveries.

"Pero ang rate ng recovery tingnan naman ninyo, ang cases with final outcome is 992,759. Ang recoveries ay 975,234," Duterte said.

The country reported 7,255 new COVID-19 cases this Monday. Of the number, Duque says 2,402 were from Metro Manila; 1,419 were from Calabarzon; 839 are from Central Luzon; and 2,595 were from other regions across the country.

Duque said the daily average cases in the country fell to 8,227 in the past week from 8,782 reported from April 19 to April 25.

The Department of Health earlier noted that the national two-week case growth rate dropped to -15% from 11% three to four weeks ago.

The average daily attack rate (ADAR) in Metro Manila also dropped to 25 cases per 100,000 population from April 18 to May 1, lower than the ADAR of 34 infections per 100,000 people from April 4 to 17. — DVM, GMA News