MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is intensifying their efforts in battling the COVID-19 pandemic as the Philippines’ COVID-19 tally crossed one million, after the DOH recorded 8,929 new infections, Monday, April 26.
“We’re doubling our efforts,” said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
“Whatever we have been doing in the past, we are intensifying,” she added.
This includes improving the country’s health system, increasing testing capacity, and improving the isolation facilities.
“Since the start of the response, we have been trying to ramp up everything in the health system, yun nga lang po ang resources nakikita nating kailangang bigyang tuon ang lahat ng sektor,” she said.
Based on DOH tally, the new infections brought the total active cases in the country to 74,623 — 95.4% of which were mild, 1.4% were asymptomatic, 1.3% were severe, and 1% were critical cases. While the total number of recoveries climbed to 914,952 after 11,333 more patients defeated the respiratory illness. The death toll, on the other hand, rose to 16,853 with 70 new fatalities.
The country now has a total of 1,006,428 infections.
Vergeire also request to all individuals experiencing COVID-19 symptoms to quickly isolate themselves in order to avoid further transmission.
“So nagpapaalala po tayo sa ating mga kababayan maya’t maya na kapag nakaranas na ng sintomas ay mag-isolate na po so that we can stop the transmission of the disease,” she said.
Vergeire also said that the reproduction rate in the National Capital Region has gone down since quarantine protocols were reimposed in late March, but she quickly added that the daily attack rate remains high.
“Nakikita natin na effective yung mga ginawan natin pero kulang pa po para tayo ay talagang makapagpababa ng mga kaso, so tuloy-tuloy pa po dapat ang mga ginagawa natin,” she said.
“Nobody should be complacent at this point,” Vergeire added.
Reporting by: Marcus Perez
Source: GMA News