News Release

PH fares well globally in battling COVID-19, says health chief


The Philippines ranks 113rd globally in terms of COVID-19 case fatality rate, according to the October 10 World Health Organization (WHO) rankings by countries, the country’s health secretary said on Monday.

WHO has a total of 192 member states.

Citing the WHO dashboard, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III reported to President Rodrigo Duterte that the Philippines ranked fifth among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in terms of case fatality rate.

Myanmar has the highest case fatality rate followed by Indonesia with 3 plus percent; Vietnam, 2.45 percent; and Cambodia, 2.14 percent. The Philippines has 1.49 percent case fatality rate.

In terms of COVID-19 deaths per million population, the Philippines is listed at No. 122 globally and third in the ASEAN, according to Duque.

In the number of active cases, the country is at 20th place globally and third in the ASEAN. Malaysia has the most number of active cases with 116,000 followed by Thailand with 110,000, and by the Philippines with 90,927 cases.

The country also ranks No. 133 globally and third in the ASEAN in terms of COVID-19 cases per million population, Duque reported.

Malaysia has the highest number of cases per million population with 71,126 followed by Thailand with 24,433 and the Philippines with 23,929 cases per million.

“Sa pagkakataon pong ito, ating binibigyang-pansin ang rankings buhat sa WHO sapagkat sinasalamin po nito ang kumpleto or longitudinal o cumulative data ng higit na maraming mga bansa,” Duque explained.

“At importante na tingnan natin ang kabuuang lagay ng mga bansa at hindi lamang ang sitwasyon sa mga partikular na panahon. Ito po ay magreresulta lamang sa hindi pagkakatulad ng magiging lagay ng mga ito,” he added.

For instance, Duque pointed out that if the seven-day rolling average is taken into consideration, a country with a constantly increasing number of cases could get a much lower ranking compared with countries that have experienced surge or peak in the number of cases.

As of October 11, the country has recorded 8,292 new COVID-19 cases putting the total number of cases at 98,894, or 3.7 percent of the total cases.

The total number of recoveries is 2,536,000 while the overall fatality record is 39,660. PND