Philippine officials yesterday disputed data that showed the country had the most Covid-19 cases in East Asia, insisting that previous "hot spot" Indonesia was just not testing enough people, a claim Jakarta contested.
"Because we test more, it is not true that we have more cases than Indonesia. The Indonesians just don't know just exactly how many who are sick are out there. At least we do," said Mr Harry Roque, the spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte.
The Philippines on Thursday reported a total tally of 119,460 cases, the highest in all of East Asia.
Only India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have more cases in Asia.
Indonesia, which till Thursday had been the epicentre, had 118,753 cases. Yesterday, it reported 2,473 new infections, bringing the total tally in the country to 121,226.
The Philippines' caseload jumped by nearly 3,300 yesterday to 122,754.
"There are those saying these are bad numbers because we are the highest. It is not like that. It only means we know where the cases are… Quoting Donald Trump, if we want to see a lower figure, we should stop testing. But that is not our policy," said Mr Roque.
He said the Philippines is seeing a spike in infections because it has been able to ramp up testing.
He said the country has already conducted more than 1.6 million tests, or 28,938 per day.
Data from Indonesia's Covid-19 mitigation task force showed that as of Thursday, the number of tests had reached 1.63 million, while 930,000 people had been tested. A number of them had been tested more than once.
Task force spokesman Wiku Adisasmito told The Straits Times that Indonesia was already testing some 20,000 people a day and was looking at ramping this up to 30,000, in line with the target set by President Joko Widodo.
Indonesia's population is more than twice that of the Philippines, which stands at roughly 107 million.
Mr Roque said: "We are finding more cases because we are testing three times more than Indonesia. That is our basis for saying it is not true or conclusive that we have more cases than Indonesia."
Echoing Mr Roque, Philippine Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters that the country has conducted more tests than any other nation in South-east Asia.
Mr Duterte on Sunday placed Metropolitan Manila and the nearby provinces of Bulacan, Riza, Cavite and Laguna - home to some 27 million - back on lockdown for at least two weeks, as infections soared soon after he eased strict quarantine curbs, that were in place since mid-March, on June 1.
The Philippines reported more than 75,000 cases for June and July alone. So far this month, the tally has already reached close to 30,000.
Researchers at the University of the Philippines said on Tuesday that they expect the tougher curbs to prevent at least 50,000 new cases. They said infections would have topped 220,000 by the end of the month if the government had stayed the course.
"This virus is not going to go away easily," said Economic Planning Secretary Karl Chua. "But if we do nothing right now, while the healthcare system is in dire need, our recovery won't be sustainable," he said. "We have to dance with the virus."
Additional reporting by Linda Yulisman
