The trend of new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases being detected in the country showed a consistent decline, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that from Oct. 13 to 19, the country's average cases went down to 6,955.
" is 31 percent lower than the previous week or prior to---from Oct. 6 to 12 kung saan ang ating (wherein our) seven-day moving average ay (was at) 10,065 daily cases," he said during President Duterte's "Talk to the People" program aired on Tuesday night Oct. 19.
With this, Duque said that COVID-19 cases in the Philippines "have truly started to go down."
"Sa madaling salita Mr. President, ito malinaw na malinaw na nag umpisa na talaga ang patuloy na pagbaba ng mga kaso (In other words Mr. President, it's very clear that cases really are starting to drop)," he said.
Despite this, Duque said that the government still needs to intensify its effort to further reduce the number of cases.
"We are continuously seeing a decline in our case trends. The goal now is to strengthen response in smaller regions that show slow decline in cases and utilization rate," he said.
The health chief also emphasized the importance of vaccinating the vulnerable population--- the senior citizens and immunocompromised individuals.
"Vaccination rate of A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (people with comorbidities) priority groups in other regions must be hastened to achieve full coverage. This will have (the) most impact on decreasing healthcare utilization rates and deaths," he said.