Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country continues to decrease.
"We can see that the cases are decreasing," he said in a meeting with President Duterte Monday, May 3.
Duque said after recording the highest number of cases the first week of April, cases slowly decreased.
"In the past week, an average of 8,227 cases were recorded daily. This was lower than the 8,782 average daily cases from April 19 to 25," he said.
"We are targetting to lower it to the January, February level of 1,700 average daily cases," added Duque.
The Health chief said most of the cases came from the National Capital Region (NCR), Calabarzon, and Central Luzon.
Duque said of the 7,255 new COVID-19 cases reported on the said day, 2,402 were from NCR, 1,419 from Calabarzon, 839 from Central Luzon, and 2,595 from the rest of the regions.
He said the healthcare utilization rate also improved.
"Our ICU capacity in NCR particularly in DOH hospitals increased. From 215 in April 18, we now have 491 ICU beds as of May 2," said Duque.
"The pending admissions in the emergency rooms of DOH hospitals also decreased to 21 percent from April 18 to May 2," he added.
Duque said even the Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facility (TTMF) utilization rate is also decreasing.
"National TTMF is at 21 percent while in NCR its at 55 percent...One to two weeks ago our utilization rate was at 63 percent," he said.