WHO cherry-picking Covid data, says DoH

THE Department of Health on Sunday called out the World Health Organization ( WHO) for its report that the country had the fastest rise in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in the Western Pacific Region.

According to the WHO Situation Report, dated June 17, the Philippines had logged 3,789 Covid cases June 16 — highest among 22 countries in the region — with Singapore a far second with 2,455 cases.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said WHO was “cherrypicking” in comparing the situation in two countries.

“Our socioeconomic context, particularly living conditions, as well as health system capacity, even prior to Covid, is different from Singapore,” she told group of reporters on Sunday.

Singapore had a population of 5.9 million with 7,393 cases per 1 million population, while the Philippines had 109 million with 318 cases per million, Vergeire said.

Singapore also managed its cases with lower case fatality rate (CFR) of 0.06 percent — or 4.4 deaths per 1 million population, while the country registered3.6 CFR or 11.34 deaths per million, she added.

Although the country’s CFR was thrice that of Singapore, its CFR was lower than the global CFR of 5.1 percent, she said.

“Please take that into account when we do our analysis. Let us not cherry pick the countries we want to compare ourselves to,” Vergeire continued.

On Sunday, 653 Covid cases were reported, bringing the total to 35,455.

The recovery count stood at 9,686 after 258 recoveries were reported.

Eight new deaths raised the death toll to 1,244.

The virus has infected almost 10 million worldwide, with the global death toll approaching half a million.

Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said the success of the government’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic lies on the public’s strict compliance with safety protocols as well as improved health facilities.

“Walapangbakunaatgamotsasakit naito ( There is no vaccine yet for this disease). That is why strict enforcement of existing measures and proper compliance of everyone are very crucial,” he said in a text message.

“If we follow the [safety] measures and continue to cooperate to stop the spread of this disease, if we improve our health facilities and capabilities — these are the things that will determine when will we overcome and end this crisis brought by Covid-19,” he added.

As chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Go said he continued to call on the government to further improve its test, trace and treat strategy against the pandemic.

He raised the need to source funds to implement programs that would curb the spread of Covid-19.

Reacting on the same issue, Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd said the Inter- Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases must address the health protocols and programs being done by the Health department.

“Something is very wrong,” he lamented.

“I think it’s the delay in actions and responses. That includes contact tracing and aggressive research on medications,” Sotto said in a text message.

Sen. Emmanuel Joel Villanueva said, “I have always stated that we should be conservative in our approach in reviving the economy. For the past weeks, we lost focus on our primary goal of containing the virus.”

Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the WHO report showed that the Philippines had “the worst pandemic response.”

Not from China

Meanwhile, the widespread belief that the pandemic originated in Wuhan, China is being challenged.

The presence of Covid-19 in sewage in Spain offers a clue on the virus’ existence, either in people or animals, before China reported its first Covid-19 patient in December 2019, Chinese experts said, after Spain detected the presence of the coronavirus in March last year, and Italy made similar findings.

Research led by the University of Barcelona showed the presence of the virus in samples of wastewater in Barcelona in March 2019 and infections were present before knowing of any case of Covid- 19 in any part of the world.

The university released the findings in “SARS- CoV-2 detected in wastewater in Barcelona on March 12, 2019” on its website on Friday and the findings were also published in health sciences website Medrxiv.

The source of Covid- 19 is slowly being unearthed, as the virus may have existed in other countries before the first case was reported by China. These findings might alter the chronology on the evolution of the Covid- 19, experts said.