The average daily number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country has slightly declined, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday, April 23.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the country currently has an average of 9,936 new cases per day over a period of seven days, as of April 21.
This was a slight decrease compared to an average of more than 10,000 daily new cases of the previous seven-day moving average.
The health official noted that positivity rate in Metro Manila has now dropped to 18.3 percent compared to the previous 20.4 percent.
“So nakikita natin may kunting pagbaba (So we can see a slight decrease),” Vergeire said in a virtual press briefing
“Sana magtuloy-tuloy na hanggang sa mga susunod na linggo itong pagbaba ng mga kaso (Hopefully this drop in cases will continue in the coming weeks),” she added.
Vergeire explained that several factors have contributed to the small drop in the average daily new cases.
She noted that among these factors include the implementation of the two week enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
Likewise, the health official said that the cooperation of the public, by observing the minimum public health standards, helped in reducing the number of daily cases.
“Nakita naman natin na nakipag-cooperate ang ating mga kababayan (We saw that our fellow Filipinos cooperated) she said.
“So hopefully mag tuloy-tuloy nga at sana tuloy-tuloy pa rin yung response at saka pakikipagtulungan ng ating mga kababayan (So hopefully it will continue and hopefully the response will continue, as well as the cooperation of the people),” she added.
Vergeire earlier said that there was an “artificial” drop in the number of cases recently as some laboratories have temporarily stopped its operations while others failed to submit their data on time.
“For the past two weeks, you can really see a decline in cases. However, we must be careful in interpreting the data because we still have this artificial decline in cases. We cannot say yet that it is conclusive,” Vergeire said in a virtual forum on April 21.
“We believe the decline is still artificial. Let’s wait for more days,” she added.