Thirty-four out of 78 Filipinos infected with COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) in South Korea have already recovered, Philippine Embassy Chargè d’Affaires Christian De Jesus said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Laging Handa briefing, De Jesus said the remaining 44 Filipinos are under the care of the South Korean health authorities and are receiving treatment in various government hospitals and medical facilities.
“Most of the cases (of Filipinos) are considered mild cases,” the Filipino diplomat said.
De Jesus explained that the reported numbers of Filipinos infected with coronavirus in South Korea may differ from the figures recorded at the Department of Health in Manila mainly due to the issue of logging of information.
He said they are receiving their numbers from local health authorities and the Filipino community in South Korea.
The situation in South Korea, according to De Jesus, is slowly improving as church services and some sporting events may be allowed to operate beginning this weekend subject to strict compliance with health protocols.
“We can say that the situation is now under control. Most of the recorded new (COVID-19) cases are imported or those coming from abroad, not local transmission,” he said.
De Jesus attributed the significant improvement of the COVID-19 situation in South Korea to the use of high technology system in monitoring and contact tracing individuals such as an app that can be downloaded on cellphones.
Based on the latest monitoring of online platform Worldometer, South Korea has a total of 14,251 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 13,069 recoveries and 300 fatalities.