Philippine COVID-19 cases dropped by 25% over past few weeks —DOH exec

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has decreased by 25% "comparing to last month."

In an online briefing, Vergeire said that the trend may improve further to no more new COVID-19 cases to be reported in a day.

“Further analysis showed na ‘yung trends natin comparing to last month decreased by 25 percent. So hopefully dadating tayo doon sa point na pababa na rin siya ng pababa,” Vergeire said.

“Hindi na tayo madadagdagan ng kaso,” she added.

Based on Department of Health data, the average number of new reported cases per day from three to four weeks ago was 2,517 cases. In the past two weeks, Vergeire said this dropped to 1,887 cases.

“When we talk about the whole country, we were also averaging before mataas na mga kaso. Pero ngayon nakikita natin, ‘yung ating averages for our country would just be about 1,800 in a day,” she said.

Vergeire added that the average number of new COVID-19 cases in the National Capital Region also dropped from 842 cases to 522 cases.

However, Vergeire noted that the number of COVID-19 cases alone does not determine the community quarantine classification that will be applied to an area.

She pointed out that the health system capacity should also be considered.

According to Vergeire, the DOH is targeting that all local government units will be under modified general community quarantine or new normal by the end of the first quarter of 2021.  —KBK, GMA News