The Department of Health (DoH) on Friday said the case fatality rate in Metro Manila is almost 1.5% during the past two weeks, lower than the 5.36% reported by the OCTA Research Team on Wednesday.
Health Undersecretary Rosario S. Vergeire, in a virtual briefing, said, “As of April 15, our case fatality rate in NCR (National Capital Region) is 1.46%. We compute the case fatality rate based on the number of deaths from this specific disease, which is the COVID-19, over the number of confirmed cases.”
OCTA said the 5.36% fatality rate from March 28 to April 13 was almost thrice the 1.82% recorded from March 1 to 27. It said this could be attributed to the “overwhelmed” healthcare system and the more transmissible coronavirus variants infecting patients.
The Health department on Friday reported an additional 10,726 cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), bringing the total to 914,971.
New recoveries were at 650 for a total of 705, 757, while deaths reached 15,738 with an additional 145 who died.
Of the total reported cases, 193,476 are active, of which 96% are mild, 2.9% are asymptomatic., 0.5% are severe, 0.4% are critical, and 0.30% are moderate.
Healthcare capacity in the capital continues to be at high usage with 84% of ICU beds occupied.
Ward beds were at 72% utilization while 63% of isolation beds were in use. Around 64% of ventilators are currently in use.
Meanwhile, Ms. Vergeire said the DoH continues to disburse funds for the premiums and benefits of healthcare frontliners.
The DoH said it has so far paid a total of P1.6 billion in special risk allowances (SRA) and active hazard duty pay (AHDP) to healthcare workers.
Around 60,449 and 56,099 healthcare workers from Metro Manila were paid their SRA and AHDP, respectively.
“We make sure here in the DoH that their salary and benefits are given on time and completely,” she said.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte issued Administrative Order No. 28 last year, which gives public health sector workers an SRA that is computed based on the number of days that they rendered duty. — Gillian M. Cortez