The One Hospital Command Center (OHCC), the country's hospital referral system, has been receiving fewer calls---a sign that cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are starting to decline, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said that calls being received by OHCC almost decreased by half as compared to the number of calls in August.
“Kapuna-puna na ang mga araw araw na transaksyon na tinatanggap ng One Hospital Command ay talagang bumababa na (It is noticeable that the daily transactions received by One Hospital Command are actually declining),” said Duque during President Duterte’s “Talk to the People” program on Wednesday night, Oct. 6.
“Nagkaroon po ng average 284 transactions kada araw at ang pinakamataas po na aming na obserbahan na bilang ng transaksyon ay 547 noon pong Agosto 31 (The average transaction per day is at 284---and the highest number of transaction we observed was 547 on August 31),” he added.
Duque said that this may also mean that COVID-19 cases are also decreasing.
“Nagpapakita po dito na kaakibat po nito ay bumababa ang ating mga kaso dahil po noong huling pag uulat ko, itong linggong ito 25 percent lower ang cases natin kumpara doon sa nakaraang linggo at yung resulta ng pagbaba ay nasasalamin din dito sa mga ginagawang transaksyon ng ating One Hospital Command Center (It shows that our cases are decreasing----this week, our cases were 25 percent lower as compared to last week and the result of the decrease is also reflected here in the transactions of our One Hospital Command Center),” he said.
“Again, ito ay senyal(es) na talagang nag umpisa na po ang pagbaba ng ating mga kaso (this is a signal that the decline in our cases has already started),” he added.
Since Tuesday, Oct. 5, the Philippines logged less than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases.