The World Health Organization on Tuesday clarified that it did not identify the Philippines as the country with the fastest rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in the Western Pacific region.
“The World Health Organization never made such a comment or an assessment. What happened was a journalist from Inquirer used that dashboard and interpreted it in this way,” WHO Country Representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe explained.
He added that the WHO does not compare countries or make such assessments.
The Department of Health (DOH) earlier asserted that it is not appropriate to cherry pick countries to compare with the Philippines. The socioeconomic context, as well as health system capacity, are different from other countries.
For instance, the Philippines has a higher population than Singapore. However, per one million people, Singapore has a higher case count at 7,393 compared with the Philippines at 318.
Although the country’s case fatality rate as of June 28 at 3.55 percent is higher than that of ASEAN at 2.9 percent, it is still lower compared to the global CFR of 5.15 percent.
Meanwhile, the DOH said that Metro Manila is still the country’s COVID-19 epicenter despite the rising number of cases in Cebu City.
It also identified emerging hotspots in Mindanao such as Bukidnon, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Maguindanao.
As of June 30, the latest case bulletin shows a total of 37,514 confirmed COVID-19 cases after 858 fresh and 222 late cases were added. The death toll rose to 1,266 while recovery count climbed to 10,233. – Report from Mark Fetalco
