Deaths from COVID-19 going down: DOH

June 27, 2020

The fatality rates from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to go down, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Saturday.

"On our deaths, we have a total of 1,224 but we want to inform the public that based on our data and analysis of our experts, the number of fatalities because of COVID-19 in our country continued to decrease," Vergeire said in a public briefing.

"In fact, our case fatality here jn our country is just around 3.6 percent or 3.8 percent which if we compare worldwide, the case fatality rate is more than 5 percent," she added.

In a previous interview, Vergeire said the fatality rate on May 31 is 5.52 percent and it has gone down to 4.24 percent on June 13.

Vergeire said the DOH is also studying possible reduction on the number of quarantine days  for COVID-19 patients discharged from a hospital or quarantine facility.

"There are evidence from experts these past weeks saying that (if) a person who was found positive for COVID-19 after the tenth day of illness, the patient is no longer contagious. That is why we shift our protocol where we no longer require to test those who will be discharged  at the hospital and at the quarantine (facility)," she said.

"We are studying now the additional 14 days after the patient was discharged from hospital or quarantine facility and the patient still needs to undergo home quarantine or step down facilities if we can reduce this into just seven days," she added.

"But let me just clear this, the original 14 days quarantine, it still remains especially to those suspected, probable (cases). What were going to reduce in case the expert will recommend is the additional 14 days after you were released from the hospital or quarantine facility," she explained. Robina Asido/DMS