COVID-19 cases in PH exceed 445,000 as the country registers 1,383 new infections

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,383 new COVID-19 cases or a total of 445,540 confirmed cases in the Philippines on Thursday.

Additional cases have remained below 2000 during each of the last 11 days and below 1500 during the last 3 days. However, Thursday’s count does not include the results of 9 testing labs that were not delivered on time.

Among the areas with the highest number of new cases are Quezon City with 83, Laguna with 75, Manila City with 68, Bulacan with 65 and Davao City with 61.

The Philippines also recorded an additional 133 recovered patients, bringing the total number of recoveries to 409,058.

There were also 24 additional COVID-related deaths or a total of 8,701 deaths.

Of the 27,781 active cases of COVID-19 in the country, 85.5% have mild symptoms, 6.7% asymptomatic, 5% in critical condition, 2.5% severe symptoms and 0.25% symptoms moderate.

DOH removed 7 cases, 6 of which are recovered cases, from the official tally due to duplicate entries.

There were also 11 recovered cases that turned out to be deaths.

The OCTA group – made up of professors from the University of the Philippines, the University of Santo Tomas and Providence College in the United States – on Wednesday identified four areas as high risk due to the increase in COVID-19 cases and high hospital occupancy. :

• – Makati City in the National Capital Region
• – City of Mankayan and Baguio in Benguet
• – Davao City

The DOH and experts have repeatedly warned Filipinos not to go out, especially during the upcoming Christmas season. The Philippines is said to already have a downward trend in COVID-19 cases, but officials are concerned that the trend will reverse due to Christmas gatherings.

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The OCTA Research Group previously said it estimates a total of 500,000 cases in the country by the end of the year.

Since the start of the pandemic, 68.9 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus control panel. Of these, more than 1.5 million have died and almost 44.4 million have recovered.