MANILA, Feb. 21 -- The Department of Health (DOH) said Friday it has observed a slowdown in the trend of dengue cases recorded in the past four weeks nationwide.

From Jan. 19 to Feb. 15, a total of 15,134 dengue cases was logged, translating to a 5 percent drop from the 15,134 cases logged in the same period last year.

"This welcome change may be due to heightened public awareness and collective action following the recent calls to action. In focus would be the more frequent clean-up drives to search and destroy stagnant water mosquito breeding sites, and misting or fogging in hotspot areas with high mosquito vector load," the DOH said in a statement.

However, the overall tally of dengue cases from Jan. 1 to Feb. 15 stands at 43,732, w...