Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday, Oct. 11, cited data that showed the Philippines climbed to the 19th spot among the countries with the most number of coronavirus cases.
Robredo cited the latest tally by US-based Johns Hopkins University, which indicates that the Philippines overtook Turkey after its caseload reached 334,770.
The Philippines has 2,388 more COVID-19 cases than Turkey’s 332,382. At the 18th spot is Saudi Arabia, with 338,539 cases.
The US remains at the top of the list with 7.66 million infections, followed by India with 6.9 million, and Brazil which logged five million cases.
“Sana iyong goal huwag nang dumagdag nang dumagdag kasi hindi naman ito pataasan. Actually, pababaan ito,” Robredo said in her radio show while she expressed her concern for the Philippines being among the 20 countries included in the list.
(I hope that goal is for the numbers not to go up anymore because this isn’t about ranking higher. It’s about ranking lower.)
Based on the data of the World Health Organization (WHO), Robredo also noted the country recorded the most number of new cases and COVID-related deaths in the West Pacific region as of Oct. 10.
“Sa West Pacific region, mayroon tayong 6,152 deaths. Iyong susunod sa atin ay China, 4,634. So parang naungusan natin iyong China pagdating sa mga namatay,” she said. “Ang China ngayon kung makikita natin, 15 na lang ang kanilang new cases. So kapag tiningnan natin ang iba rito ay dati ang tataas pero bumaba na ngayon. Gustong sabihin, mas nauna silang na-flatten iyong curve,” she added.
(In the West Pacific, we have 6,152 deaths. After us is China, with 4,634. So it’s as if we’ve overtaken China in terms of deaths. If you look at China now, they only have 15 new cases. So we can see how others used to have high numbers of cases but these have gone low now. What I want to say is, they have flattened the curve ahead of us.)
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) on Monday. Oct. 12, will launch its own COVID-19 tracker to monitor the number of confirmed cases per region, province, or city in the country.
Robredo said her office created the tracker using the data also sourced from the Department of Health (DOH) to help the local governments in its coronavirus testing and contract tracing efforts.
“Kapag nakita nila iyong numbers ay maga-guide sila nito kung ilan dapat iyong tina-target nila na contact tracing, ilang dapat iyong tina-target nila na testing,” she said. “Hindi siya puwedeng kung sinu-sino lang. Dapat iyong tine-test talaga depende sa positive cases sa lugar,” Robredo stressed.
(When they see the numbers, it will give them an idea of how many they should target for contact tracing, how many they should target for testing. It can’t be just random. They should be testing based on the positive cases in a certain area.)