As the Philippines entered the list of 20 countries with the most number of coronavirus cases worldwide, the Department of Health (DOH) urged the public to pay attention to active COVID-19 cases, not the cumulative count.

At a virtual press briefing on Friday, October 2, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the ranking is based on the total number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began and did not take into account recovered cases.

“Kapag tumitingin tayo ng datos, dapat tinitingnan natin ilan na lang ba ang active cases? Ilan ba ba ang nakarecover? Ilan na ba ang namamatay?” Vergeire said in a virtual press briefing on Friday.

(When we look at the data, we should also look at the number of active cases. How many have recovered? How many have died?)

Vergeire said that healthcare system in the country has improved “tremendously,” adding that recoveries in the country is now at 80%, while the fatality rate is less than 2%.

As of October 1, the global average of case fatality rate is at around 3%.

“Nakita natin noon na hirap-hirap tayo noon just to accommodate patients. Umabot tayo sa time na kailangan maghintay ng pasyente sa labas ng ospital. Hindi makakarating sa ospital (We saw how we struggled before just to accommodate patients. We reached a point that patients needed to wait outside hospitals or could not reach the hospital). But now we have expanded our health systems capacity,” Vergeire said.

The Philippines entered the list of 20 countries with the most number of coronavirus cases worldwide on Thursday, after the DOH reported 2,415 new cases, bringing the country’s total to 314,079. Of the total confirmed cases, 54,294 are active.

The list can be seen in the Worldometers site and the website of Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

The Philippines is now just one notch below Italy, which has 314,861 cases.

Out of 198 countries that have active cases presented on Worldometer, the Philippines ranked 92nd, with 513.39 active cases per one million population as of October 2. 

Meanwhile, the country ranked 86th in terms of percentage of active cases against total cases worldwide. In Southeast Asia, the Philippines ranked 3rd, behind Myanmar and Indonesia. 

Globally, the United States is still the most coronavirus-hit nation, reporting 7.5 million cases, followed by India with 6.3 million cases, Brazil with 4.8 million cases, and Russia with 1.2 million cases.

Despite having the longest lockdown in the world, the Philippines still has the most COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia. – Rappler.com