The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday appealed to the public not to compare the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation in the country to other countries.

In a statement, the DOH said comparisons between countries are not as simple as comparing the number of COVID-19 cases.

"The comparison made with Singapore and other countries requires a deeper understanding of population ratio versus number of cases," it said.

"Our socioeconomic context, particularly living conditions, as well as health system capacity, even prior to COVID-19, is different from Singapore," it added.

The DOH said such factors should be taken into account when doing data analysis.

"Let us not cherry pick the countries we want to compare ourselves to," it said.

According to DOH, Singapore has a population of 5.9 million, with a COVID-19 case load of 43,246, while the Philippines has 109 million population with 34,803 COVID-19 cases.

"Per one million people, Singapore has a higher case at 7,393 cases compared with the Philippines at 318 cases," it added.

The DOH issued the statement after reports came out showing that the Philippines has the fastest rise in virus cases in the Western Pacific Region, as per World Health Organization's (WHO) data.

On Sunday, the DOH reported 653 new COVID-19 cases in the country, bringing the total cases to 35,455.

Of the new reported cases, 485 were "fresh cases” while 168 were considered as "late cases".

The health department also recorded eight new fatalities and 258 recoveries.

The latest figures brought to 1,244 the total number of COVID-19 deaths and 9,686 coronavirus recoveries.

According to WHO, as of June 27, there were 9,782,197 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 494,421 deaths, globally. Ella Dionisio/DMS