Hospital nurse (File Photo)

The decline in Covid-19-related deaths in the country can be attributed to the improved case management and fewer number of severe coronavirus cases, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said that hospitals are now more prepared in handling Covid-19 patients as compared to the early part of the pandemic.

“We are quite confident as of this time compared to two years ago when we started to respond to this pandemic in terms of our healthcare utilization,” she said in a press briefing on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

“Alam natin na ang mga ospital ngayon ay mas handa, mas may kapasidad na rumesponde. Very manageable ang mga admissions natin sa mga ospital. Nakikita natin na less and less ang ating severe and critical cases (We know that at present, hospitals are better prepared and have more capacity to respond. Our hospital admissions are very manageable. We see that our severe and critical cases are becoming less and less),” she added.

Currently, Covid-19 was identified as the 11th leading cause of death in the country, based on the recent report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released last Jan. 23.

In 2021, PSA reported that Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the Philippines.

“Ito ay isang magandang balita para sa atin (This is good news for us),” said Vergeire.

“ signifies na kakaunti nalang ang namamatay from Covid dito sa ating bansa (that only a few people are dying due to Covid here in our country) and we are able to prevent already further deaths because of this disease,” she added.

Despite this positive development, Vergeire said that the public should not let their guards down as Covid-19 continues to be a threat.

“This would not mean that we become complacent. Kailangan tuloy-tuloy pa rin ang ating vigilance and laging cautious para hindi tayo babalik doon sa ating dating estado kung saan tumataas ang kaso at tumataas ang naadmit (We need to continue our vigilance and always be cautious so that we do not return to our previous state where there was an increase in both the the number of cases and admissions),” she said.

Since 2020, the Philippines has already recorded 4,072,188 confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of Jan. 24. This number includes 3,996,234 survivors and 65,726 deaths.

To note, ischemic heart diseases remained the leading cause of deaths among Filipinos, the latest report from PSA stated.

Completing the list of top 10 causes of death in the Philippines are: cerebrovascular diseases, neoplasms (commonly known as cancer), diabetes mellitus, hypertensive diseases, pneumonia, other heart diseases, chronic lower respiratory diseases, remainder of diseases of the genitourinary system, and respiratory tuberculosis, the PSA said.

#COVID-19 deaths

DOH attributes PH’s decline in Covid deaths to improved patient handling, fewer severe cases