The latest tally by the US-based Johns Hopkins University showed that the Philippines—the only Southeast Asian country among 20 with the most COVID-19 cases—is trailing Italy, which has 325,329 infections at 18th place.The Philippines also has just 319 more cases than No. 20 Turkey as of Monday.The Philippines rose to the top 20 on Oct. 1 when its cumulative coronavirus infections reached 314,079. The United States still tops the tally with over 7.4 million cases and 210,000-plus deaths.On Monday, the DOH reported 87 recoveries, bringing to 273,123 the number of patients who have recovered from the disease. Health authorities reported 64 new fatalities, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 5,840.This left 45,799 active cases, 85.6 percent of which are mild, 9.2 percent of which are asymptomatic, 1.6 percent of which are severe and 3.6 percent of which are critical.

The COVID-19 crisis in the Philippines is now under control even though it ranked in the top 20 in the world in the number of cases, a former Health secretary said on Monday.Dr. Paulyn Ubial, during an interview on ANC’s “Matters of Fact,” said the country’s positivity rate, or the percentage of tests that come back positive, had significantly decreased.Ubial, who leads the molecular laboratory in the Philippine Red Cross, said the positivity rate has gone down to 4 percent in September, 3 percent lower than what was recorded in July and August.”The spread of disease is actually being controlled. So, there are so many things you have to consider when looking at numbers,” Ubial said.The former health official, who was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte but was later rejected by the Commission on Appointments, said the government’s response to the pandemic had also improved.The Philippines had conducted more COVID-19 tests, improved its health system capacity and expanded contact tracing efforts to rein in the contagion, she said.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday said the country is not going for a record of zero COVID-19 cases but aiming for a much lower number of cases, saying the coronavirus disease will stay in the lives of the Filipino people. With Macon Ramos-Araneta

“This virus is gonna stay with us. Let us not deceive ourselves. We’re not going for zero COVID-19 cases,” Duque said during an interview on CNN Philippines.Duque made the statement when asked if the Philippines already flattened the curve of COVID-19 cases.Duque said they are targeting a downward trend and not just a flattening of the curve.Duque said the two important goals are to manage the cases of transmission and increase the health care capacity.

The Philippines is seeing an over-all decrease in the number of coronavirus cases, although some areas have shown an increase in the number of infections, said the Department of Health (DOH).In a virtual briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the country was averaging 2,400 cases a day using a seven-day weekly average, down from 3,000 in the past weeks.“We can see that we have this good direction for now. The indications are good,” she said.She said, however, that the DOH continues to monitor specific areas that are still seeing a rise in the number of cases of the last two weeks.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) said Monday that upgrading lockdowns against COVID-19 would be a last resort amid efforts to revive the economy.Current community quarantine classifications, which determine which businesses are allowed to operate, will see “stricter implementation and observance of the health and safety protocols,” the IATF said in a resolution dated Oct. 2.”For this purpose, escalation of community quarantine levels shall be reserved as a last resort to address the rising COVID-19 situation in their jurisdiction,” the IATF added.Senator Christopher Go, on the other hand, urged the IATF not to rush the easing of quarantine restrictions while a vaccine is still unavailable. With Macon Ramos-Araneta