On July 15, Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has been a hot topic once again on the online world after claiming that the Philippines has successfully flattened the curve of coronavirus disease since April.

"We have successfully flattened the curve since April. The metrics for arriving at that conclusion of flattening the curve is actually one, the case doubling time of the COVID-19 infection has actually become longer," the Health chief said during the government's Pre-SONA forum.

At a toll of 57,545 confirmed cases, he made the statement as he cited the slowdown of COVID-19 infections doubling time and the decreasing mortality rate caused by the virus.

 “Ang ibig sabihin dito, nasimula na natin nailiko o naikurba yung epidemic curve in April after the imposition of ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] nung March 17,” Duque later on explained.

The social media world has been raging on fire after the pronouncement.

Some politicians and personalities have expressed dismay over the confusion and far from reality announcement according to them.

“OMG! Dear Secretary Duque, with all due respect, pls tell us what curve is flattening? Is it the fact that the cases in April were at an average of 200 a day as compared to the daily average of over a thousand cases today?," said Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri.

See some reactions below:

Earlier last May, we can still remember the ‘alike confusion’ when his agency claimed that the country was facing the middle stage of its “second wave” of the virus; the health department then apologized for the fallacy they have committed and clarified that we were still on the first local outbreak.

Meanwhile, several big hospitals in Metro Manila and Cebu City have declared full capacity for COVID-19 beds in the past few days as cases continuously spike up.