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The transmission rate of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has slowed and the death rate has decreased, said an epidemiologist with the Inter-Agency Technical Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease Management (IATF-EID) Tuesday.
The news that the country is finally seeing the “flattening of the curve” came more than two months after the island of Luzon was placed under enhanced community quarantine.
“In fact, there is a flattening of the curve,” said Dr. John Wong, head of work for the IATF-EID group of data analysis experts at an online news conference.
“We are not only looking at how many cases we have in a day, but the speed at which it occurs,” he added. “We are looking at cases and mortality [rate of the virus], and both are slowing down. “
According to the data, the doubling time for cases across the country is 4.6 days, while the doubling time for deaths is 5.7 days.
The doubling time for deaths in Luzon, where most carriers are located, is now 7 days, while the current doubling time for cases in Luzon is 5.8 days.
Experts measure the doubling time to determine how quickly the case doubles and the mortality of the virus.
The undersecretary of Health, María Rosario Vergeire, said that the country should have a doubling time of cases of 30 days or more “before we can be sure.”
He also believes that “data limitations” must be taken into account when talking about flattening the curve.
“The process of obtaining patient information is tedious. We should take delays into account, “he said.
Wong said there were about 8,000 delays, and according to the current trend, about 10 percent of the tests came back positive.
“Despite the accumulation, the flattening is still in effect. Among 8,000, most of them will turn negative, we expect only around 800 to turn positive, and that really won’t affect the doubling time of the case as much, “he said.
“We already saw that [the flattening of the curve] for 10 days in terms of cases and mortality, “he said.” But I still don’t want to speculate if the peak has been reached. “
As of Tuesday, the country had 9,684 Covid-19 cases.
Also Tuesday, Vergeire said that coronavirus disease could not be transmitted by blood transfusion.
She made the clarification after Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara tested positive for the virus a second time.
Angara was about to donate blood plasma a second time when her doctors made her take another hyssop test and she tested positive for the virus.
Blood plasma from patients who have recovered from Covid-19 is being used as part of treatment for critically ill patients with Covid-19.
“We have to remember that the concept of transmission of this disease is through respiratory drops,” Vergeire told journalists in a media forum.
“There is still no evidence that it can be transmitted through this blood transfusion. We should not worry now because there are still no indications that this will have a negative effect on the patient, “he added.
With reports from JAN ARCILLA
