The number of deaths related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country is increasing, the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday, April 10.

“Titinitignan natin ngayon ang trends ng deaths, makikita po natin that the number of deaths are increasing (We are now look at the trends of deaths, we can see that the number of deaths are increasing),” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press briefing.

The Philippines logged a record number of COVID-19 deaths on April 9 with 401 deaths, pushing the country’s death count to 14,520.

Of the number, Vergeire explained that seven deaths happened in January, 45 deaths in February, 287 deaths in March, and 49 deaths took place in April.

“Ito po yung continuous kasi na nagva-validate tayo ng deaths (This is because of continuous validation of deaths), and the sources of information will be coming from the local government and the hospital,” she noted.

“Kaya po yung iba dito nakukuha natin nung last month pa or ng iba pa hong mga buwan dahil nga po ngayon lang nava-validate yung deaths (That's why some of the numbers included here were taken last month or in previous months because the deaths were only validated recently),” she said.

“Pero pag tinignan natin, recent naman itong March and April and we can see really that the cases of death are increasing (But when we look at the numbers, March and April are still recent and we can really see that the cases of death are increasing,” she added.

The health official noted that most of the deaths reported on April 9 were recorded in Region III (46 percent), followed by Region IV-A (23 percent, Metro Manila (13 percent), Region VII (10 percent), and the rest are from the other regions.

She explained that the late reporting of COVID-19 deaths was due to incomplete data coming from the disease reporting unit at the level of the local government units (LGU).

“Hindi po natin pwedeng itala sa official tally natin kung hindi po kumpleto ang detalye kaya kailangan po mag verify pa with local government at tsaka binabalik sa atin (We cannot include the numbers in our official tally if the details are not complete, so we need to verify with the local government and then return the data to us),” Vergeire said.