BY ANALOU DE VERA
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THE Department of Health (DoH) on Tuesday said that the country has already made significant progress in its fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) but was cautious in saying if the Philippines has already flattened the curve 100 days since the imposition of the community quarantine measures.
DoH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that they are being careful in saying that the COVID-19 curve is flattening because they observe increasing cases in some areas of the country.
“Very cautious tayo in saying na we are flattening the curve because there are still areas in the country na nakaka-experience nitong pagtaas ng mga kaso,” she said.
However, Vergeire said that they are observing indications that the spread of COVID-19 is already slowing down and that the country’s healthcare system is not yet exhausted.
The Health official said that the country’s current case doubling time is at 7.26 days.
“Na-lengthen na natin ‘yung days, napahaba na natin s’ya na hindi na sya ganun kadami…. Nagdo-double ang number ng cases natin in about one week na,” said Vergeire.
“Compared when we started off our case doubling time then – (which) was two to three days. Ibig sabihin nagdodoble ang numero ng mga kaso in just 2 or 3 days dati sa ating bansa (This means that the number of cases had been previously doubling in just two or three days in our country),” she added.
Meanwhile, the country’s critical care utilization rate is just about 35 percent, said Vergeire.
As of June 21, there are 473 intensive care unit beds that are occupied out of 1,351.
Meanwhile, 1,183 ward beds are occupied out of 3,116; and 3,213 isolation beds are occupied out of 9,302, as shown in the latest DoH COVID-19 situationer report.
The country also has 64 licensed laboratories that can perform COVID-19 testing.
“We just started off with just one…So we have capacitated our system.” said Vergeire, adding that the actual testing capacity is now ranging between 12,000 to 13,000 tests daily. The “rated” or maximum capacity of all the laboratories is at 50,000, she said.
Vergeire said that they are still striving to improve their efforts in managing the COVID-19 situation in the country.
