Record-high 401 COVID-19 deaths include data from past months; but numbers confirm rising deaths –DOH

The Department of Health on Saturday explained that the record-high 401 COVID-19 deaths reported on Friday included fatalities from the past months.

Nevertheless, the numbers do confirm that deaths in March and April have been increasing.

During the Laging Handa briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire explained that the 401 deaths included seven deaths in January, 45 in February, 287 in March, and 49 in April.

“Ito po kasi yung continuous tayong nagva-validate ng deaths and the sources of information coming from the local government and the hospital,” said Vergeire .

(This is due to our continuous validation of deaths and the sources of information coming from the local government and hospitals.)

“Pero pag titingnan natin, recent naman po itong March and April and we can see really that the cases of deaths are increasing,” she added.

(But if we will look at the numbers, in the recent deaths in March and April, we can see that deaths are increasing.)

A majority of the fatalities were from Region III at 46%, Region IV-A at 23%, National Capital Region at 13%, Region VII at 10%, with smaller percentages reported in other regions.

The DOH official also explained that the delays in reporting were due to some incomplete data from reporting units from local governments.

“Hindi po natin puwede itala sa official tally natin kung hindi po kumpleto ang detalye kaya kailangan pa i-verify with the local government at saka ibinabalik sa atin,” she explained.

(We cannot record fatalities in our official tally if the details are not complete. That is why we need to verify the data with the local government before it is returned to us.)

On Friday, the DOH recorded a record-high 401 COVID-19 deaths in the country.

The previous highest number of fatalities recorded was at 382 on April 6. — DVM, GMA News