The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday (May 21) clarified that the Philippines is still on its first wave of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, retracting its previous statement that the country is already dealing with the second wave.
“Earlier, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque clarified that we are still on the first wave of the epidemic. The DOH confirms that, yes, we are in the first wave driven by local community transmission,” said DOH-Health Promotions and Communications Service Director Dr. Beverly Ho in a press briefing.Ho said that the first wave began when the country started to observe local transmission of the dreaded illness.
“Since then, the average [number of] cases has declined to around 220 cases per day. This is the reason why we are saying that we have started to flatten the curve,” she said. Vergeire added that the second epidemiological wave– which can also be considered the “first major wave”— happened last March when the local transmission of COVID-19 was recorded.
At the same House health committee hearing on Thursday, Wong explained that Duque had been referring to the first wave of sustained community transmission that started in March. Meanwhile, former Health chief Esperanza Cabral also agreed with the government that the country is still in the first wave, but reminded it to focus on how to better prepare the country for the next waves of COVID-19 transmission.
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