Health Secretary Francisco Duque III claimed that the Philippines has "successfully flattened the curve since April" even as cases of COVID-19 in the country continue to rise.
Duque made the statement during the government's pre-SONA forum on Wednesday, July 15, when he was asked about the rising cases of the disease in the country.
"The metrics for arriving at that conclusion of flattening the curve is one, case doubling time of the COVID-19 infection has actually become longer. It used to have a very short case doubling time of 2.5 days during the initial phase of the pandemic," Duque said.
Case doubling time is the period it takes for infections to double in an area.
Case doubling time for the country lengthened to 8.18 days as of July 12, compared to 7.95 days as of July 3, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
"The other metric to say that we have flattened the curve is also the mortality doubling time has also [gotten] longer and is now in the moderate risk classification," Duque added.
In May, Duque received backlash from the public and lawmakers alike after he claimed in a Senate inquiry on May 19 that the Philippines was already on the second wave of coronavirus infections.