PH not yet done with 1st wave of COVID-19 — NTF

The Philippines is seeing a downward trend in the number of coronavirus disease cases recently but the fight is far from over. This is not a direct indication that the first wave of infection has already passed, an official of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 disclosed Wednesday.

NTF spokesman Restituto Padilla Jr. said the COVID-19 cases are still decreasing, debunking claims that the country is now experiencing a second or third wave of infection.

“There is no such thing as a third wave that is affecting us. We’re not into that yet. In fact, our experts are saying that we may not have even gotten past the first wave despite [claims] of the second wave according to some,” he said in a virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.

From October 7 to 13, data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed that there was an average of 2,641 cases per day.

Meanwhile, the number of new confirmed cases ranged from 1,990 to 3,500. This fared better than the situation back in August where up to 6,000 cases were being recorded daily. The highest single day increase during the said period was recorded on October 12 (+3,564) while the lowest was on October 13 (+1,990 new cases).

As of Tuesday, there were 344,713 confirmed cases with 293,383 recoveries and 6,372 deaths, the DOH reported.

“Despite our numbers continuously going down, and the number of persons getting infected has stabilized with the absence of tremendous spike unlike last month, I wish we maintain this situation until we bring it down further,” said Padilla