DOH studying thoroughly Ateneo paper’s claim of nearly 3 million COVID-19 cases unreported – official

August 21, 2020

The Department of Health (DOH) is studying a report published on the website of Ateneo de Manila University that nearly three million coronavirus cases in the Philippines may have gone undetected.

In a televised press briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, however, said  the study made by researcher Jan Frederick Cruz should not compare the situation of the Philippines with other countries since they have different health systems.

"We have referred it to our experts and also to our epidemiologists and they are now studying it. But if we're going to look into (the report), he also compared the different countries - Thailand, Singapore with the Philippines," she said.

"So, let us always remember that comparing countries with different health system capacities and with different types of health system is not really appropriate," Vergeire said.

"So from the data he released, we have already questions. But, of course, we always welcome this kind of forecast and estimations, we look into that as it may help but we're still studying it thoroughly so that we can give a complete comment on this," she explained.

Cruz used epidemiological and statistical modeling to estimate the alleged underreporting of over 2.8 million COVID-19 cases in the country from April to June.

Aside from Thailand and Singapore, the researcher also included in the study Indonesia and Malaysia. Celerina Monte/DMS