MANILA, Philippines, April 15 ------ The number of people dying of the coronavirus disease in Metro Manila has increased three-fold in recent weeks, OCTA Research Group revealed yesterday. Citing data from the Department of Health (DOH), the group noted that the case fatality rate (CFR) in the National Capital Region (NCR) was at 5.36 percent from March 28 to April 13, up from 1.82 percent recorded since the pandemic started.
CFR refers to the number of people who died out of the total number of COVID-19 cases. Comparing the data before and after March 28, OCTA said there was a significant increase in the number of people who died in the 65 and up age group (11.8 percent to 28.6 percent), 60 to 64 (5.7 percent to 16.4 percent) and 50 to 59 (2.7 percent to 8.7 percent). “While the more recent CFR is based on a much smaller sample size of 284 deaths, and the CFR may still decrease as more data come in, the possibility of an increase in CFR should not be ignored,” read OCTA’s report.
“The reasons for the increase in CFR may be due to an overwhelmed hospital system, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 variants which may be more lethal or both,” it added. OCTA recommended that senior citizens should be given priority to health care access to be assured that they receive timely interventions. It also urged seniors who have not applied for vaccination to strongly reconsider getting inoculated as soon as possible, stressing the high risk of mortality due to COVID-19.
“Those in the vulnerable sector should strictly adhere to public health guidelines and exercise extreme caution, especially in public areas, to avoid COVID-19 infection,” it added. OCTA fellow Michael Tee said the government must allocate additional resources to take care of those who are infected. “We cannot afford to wait for them to deteriorate in their houses before bringing them to hospital,” he said.
Source: philstar.com