Don’t be discouraged, WHO tells Pinoys

The World Health Organization (WHO) representative to the country encouraged Filipinos not to be discouraged by the high number of cases in the Philippines, the most in Southeast Asia, even as the nationally tally reached 178,022 cases.

“Don’t be discouraged by the fact that you have a lot of cases being reported nationally, that is an acknowledgment of the fact that you have expanded your testing capacity,” Rabindra Abeyasinghe said during an online forum.

He added the fact that the country has one of the lowest proportion of fatal cases in the region is also an acknowledgment of the country’s expansion of its hospital capacities.

The WHO official made the pep talk as the Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported 4,339 COVID-19 infections, bringing to 178,022 the total number of cases in the country.

Of the new cases submitted by 100 of the 109 accredited laboratories, 2,590 came from Metro Manila. Laguna trailed with 223, while Cavite reported 155, Cebu, 128, and Rizal, 109. As of Thursday, the country had 61,025 active cases, of which 91.3 percent were mild, 6.6 percent asymptomatic, 0.9 percent severe, and 1.2 percent critical.

Majority of the new cases, or 3,213, fell ill between Aug. 7 and 20.

It also reported that 727 more patients have recovered from the respiratory illness, bringing the total number of recoveries to 114,114.

The death toll climbed to 2,883 as 88 patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.

Of the newly reported fatalities, 40 died this month, 27 in July, and 19 in June and two in May. Region 7 accounted for most of the new fatalities with 42 followed by the National Capital Region with 34 deaths, Region 6 with 5, and Region 4A with 4, and Regions 9 and Cordillera Administrative Region with one each.

The DOH also reported that as of Aug. 19, about 47 percent of intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients nationwide were occupied, while 31 percent of mechanical ventilators were in use.

The Philippines also has 82 certified polymerase chain reaction facilities and 27 GeneXpert laboratories that had tested a total of 2,041,798 individuals, the DOH added.