Malacañang insisted on Tuesday that the Philippines is winning the fight against coronavirus pandemic despite ranking second in Southeast Asia with the most number of cases.

In a virtual press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said while the country's COVID-19 cases continue to increase, the number of deaths has been declining.

"I want to make it clear, I also believe and I want to believe that we're still winning because we have managed to lessen the number of deaths due to this sickness," Roque said, noting that the country's death rate is 2.9 percent compared to the worldwide rate of 5.5 percent.

"We have reduced the spread of the virus. We have plateaued at seven days, we hope we can further lower the case doubling rate," he said.

He also said that the country's positivity rate is about 6 to 7 percent for every 100,000 being tested.

Roque also noted that the capacity to provide hospital services to COVID-19 patients is still huge, with hospital bed availability at 72 percent.

According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the Philippines was second to Indonesia in Southeast Asia with the highest number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

The Department of Health reported on Tuesday that the Philippines has 47,873 COVID-19 cases, 34,178 of which are active. The recoveries rose to 12,386 and deaths also increased to 1,309.

Asked on the concern of some people that Metro Manila might return to strict quarantine classification, which is enhanced community quarantine, Roque said, "There is no need to return to a stricter quarantine because we have reached a point where all of us need to go to work."

He also said local government units have a huge responsibility to ensure that granular or localized lockdowns are being implemented.

Roque added that each individual has the responsibility to ensure coronavirus infection would not spread since there is no more cash aid from the government.

Roque said the government is also banking on the assistance of the private sector in increasing the COVID-19 testing in the country. Celerina Monte/DMS