Even with the longest lockdown in the world, the Philippines became part of the top 20 countries with the most number of coronavirus cases in the world, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s virus tracker.
Despite this, the government continues to defend its pandemic response amid the rising cases being experienced seven months into the country’s lockdown.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque stressed that the administration have learned from its mistakes in the past. Even with the thousands new cases every day, the Philippines is still able to give proper care to its patients, he added.
As for the Health Department, they reminded the public to take this ranking with the right perspective, emphasizing that active cases should be the date observed and not the totality of infections.
“It’s not just really about the numbers, we have to look at the different variables, we have to focus on the active cases and not the cumulative number of cases,” DOH spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual briefing.
“When we look at the number of active cases, our recovery rate, our case fatality rate, and looking at our health system capacity, we can see that we have improved,” she added.
As of October 3, Saturday, the Philippines has logged 319,330 confirmed cases with 58,606 active cases, 255,046 recoveries and 5,678 deaths.
