Drop in COVID-19 cases slowed down in May -DOH

The decrease of COVID-19 cases nationwide slowed down this month, the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday.

DOH Epidemiology Bureau director Dr. Alethea De Guzman said the slowdown in the decline of cases started in the middle of May.

The average number of daily new COVID-19 cases only fell to 5,130 during May 19 to 25 from 5,848 during May 12 to 18. Still, these figures are significantly lower than the peak of 10,849 daily new infections recorded from April 9 to 15.

“We’re now flagging that we’re seeing a plateau… Kung dati, tuloy tuloy ang pagbaba, ngayon po bumababa pa siya pero hindi na kasing bilis as nakikita natin (Cases are still decreasing but not as fast as) in the previous weeks,” she said at an online forum.

While cases have been declining in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon, De Guzman said Mindanao and Visayas continued to show an upward COVID-19 trend.

She said nine of the 11 regions with a positive case growth rate and an increasing average daily attack rate are in Visayas and Mindanao.

These areas were identified as Regions 1, 4B, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Caraga, and the Bangsamoro region.

Among them, Region 7 had the highest hospital occupancy rate at 69% and highest intensive care unit utilization rate at 79%.

In an interview on Balitanghali, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH is closely monitoring areas showing an increase in COVID-19 cases.

“Tinitingnan po natin kung paano pa natin ma-assist para ‘yung kanilang mga ospital ay ma-expand pa natin para mas marami po tayong ma-accommodate na pasyente (We are looking into how we can help expand the capacity of their hospitals to accommodate more patients),” she said.

The Philippines has logged 1,193,976 COVID-19 cases with 1,127,770 recoveries and 20,169 deaths as of Wednesday afternoon. -MDM, GMA News