MANILA – As the total cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reached a million since the pandemic started a year ago, the Department of Health said it is “doubling its efforts” to address the surge of cases.
According to DOH undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire these include improving localized response, expanding the country’s health system, ramping up the testing capacity, and improving the isolation facilities.
“Since the start of the response, we have been trying to ramp up everything in the health system, ‘yun nga lang po ang resources nakikita nating kailangang bigyang tuon ang lahat ng sektor,” Vergeire told GMA 7’s Unang Hirit on Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday, the total infections reached 1,013,618 after DOH logged 7,204 new cases. Only 71,675 of the total cases were active.
The undersecretary noted that the strict lockdown imposed in the National Capital Region Plus decreased the reproduction rate however the daily attack remains high.
Despite reaching the one million mark, the Malacañang appealed to the public to look at the positive developments of the government’s efforts such as high recovery and low death rates.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in terms of active cases, the country dropped to 27 from 20 in the world rankings while it ranked 26 in the total number of cases and 21 in the total recoveries./PN
