șÚÁÏÉç FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines â The average number of deaths decreased to three per day in September from the 17 per day average in August, said the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday.
DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire reported the fatality count during a press briefing, explaining that the weekly and daily reported deaths do not necessarily coincide with the reported month.
âKaya nito pong August nitong September, bagamaât nagtatala minsan 200 sa isang araw, âpag tiningnan ang exact date of death, itâs not going to coincide with that specific month,â said Vergeire.
(This August and September, although sometimes 200 deaths were recorded in one day when looking at the exact date of death, itâs not going to coincide with that specific month.)
âNgayon pong September we are averaging three deaths per day, compared to August where we averaged 17 deaths per day,â she added.
(Now, in September, we are averaging three deaths per day, compared to August, where we averaged 17 deaths per day.)
Vergeire said DOH death reports have always been late because the department on the ground validates every death.
Further, the acting DOH chief explained that the countryâs case fatality rate remains below two percent at 1.6 percent.
Slight spike in COVID cases due to increased mobility
Vergeire acknowledged the recent slight spike in COVID-19 cases, but blamed it on more mobility as some sectors, like education, have decided to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
âTalagang expectedly tataas ang kaso because kapag tumaas ang mobility, transmission will happen. Mag increase ang transmission rate,â she explained.
(It is expected that cases will increase because the transmission will happen when mobility increases. Therefore, the transmission rate will increase.)
When asked whether the spike was connected to the recent easing of the face mask policy outdoors, Vergeire said it is still too early to directly correlate the number of infections to the new masking rules.
âSa ngayon hindi pa ho natin makikita yung direct link nito dito sa masking mandate dito sa mga pagtaas ng kaso sa ibaât ibang bahagi ng bansa,â said Vergeire.
(As of now, we canât see the direct link of the rise in cases to the masking mandate in different parts of the country.)
She said the DOH doesnât know if optional masking was responsible because itâs analyzing its data.
âSa ngayon wala pa tayong bagong projections na ginagawa, it will take us around two weeks before we can start doing the data again, sa ngayon hindi pa natin makikita âyung totoong epekto since as we know we also correlate this to the incubation period of the disease,â said Vergeire.
(Until we start analyzing the data again in two weeks, we wonât see the real effect since we also correlate this to the incubation period of the disease.)
As of September 19, the country currently has, with 62,587 deaths. âwith reports from Trisha Manalaysay, Inquirer.net trainee