Nearly three million Filipinos could have been infected by the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 between April to June, according to a study in Ateneo de Manila University.
This is around 2.6% of the country’s estimated total population of 106 million, reported Inquirer.
ADMU’s Department of Economics Jan Frederick Cruz authored the study, and he said that 98% of the COVID-19 cases in the country were undetected.
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The findings showed that there were 2,812,891 COVID-19 cases in the country from April to June but the DOH only reported 34,354 or 1.22 percent.
Here are the computations for other countries:
Indonesia: 6,578,925 possible cases, but only detected 53,678 (0.82 percent)
Thailand: 89,357 possible cases, but only detected 1,520 (1.70 percent)
Malaysia: 158,237 possible cases but only detected 6,011 (3.80 percent)
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The author said that the computation was made by multiplying the number of reported cases to the ratio of the population dividing it by the number of fatality rates.
“The study at hand discloses that 49 out of every 50 COVID-19-positive persons in the Philippines have gone undetected during the second quarter of this year,” the study said.
The paper however said that it is still in its preliminary version and is still subject to peer review.
