THE WORLD Health Organization never made an assessment that the Philippines has the fastest rise in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in the Western Pacific Region, its country representative said Tuesday.
"It is unfair to say that WHO made that comment or assessment. We did not," WHO country representative, Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said in a virtual public briefing.
While the WHO provides Covid-19 data per country, Abeyasinghe said the WHO does not compare countries.
"All those assessments was done by a journalist of the Inquirer in the Philippines using the data that we have in our dashboard like many other dashboards that are globally available," he added.
Data from the WHO-Western Pacific Region showed that the Philippines has the most number of new cases between June 17 to 23.
Reacting to the broadsheet's report, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said comparison between countries in terms of the Covid-19 case doubling time and case fatality rate must be done carefully as it involves several factors such as healthcare system capacity and economic status.
Among Southeast Asian nations, WHO data show that as of June 28, Indonesia has the highest number of infections with 52,812 and Singapore with 43,246 cases. In the Philippines, there are 36,438 cases, 9,956 recoveries and 1,255 deaths as of June 29. (By Ma. Teresa Montemayor)
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