COVID-19 cases in PH exceed 448k and 1,301 new cases have been confirmed

MANILA – On Saturday, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rose to 448,331 after registering 1,301 new cases, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

This is the 13th consecutive day that the newly confirmed cases were less than 2,000, but it does not include data from 5 labs that did not submit the results to the COVID-19 Data Repository System on Friday.

Davao del Norte led the areas of the country with the highest number of new infections after registering an additional 96 cases, followed by Quezon City with 76, Laguna with 59 and Rizal and Samar (Western Samar) with 50 new cases each.

The number of recoveries increased to 409,433 as the DOH recorded 111 more patients who recovered. Total recoveries represent 91.3 percent of all registered cases.

There are 35 new deaths related to the coronavirus, the health department said. The death toll stood at 8,730.

A total of 30,168 or 6.7 percent of the total number of cases are considered active infections. The DOH said 92.8 percent of currently ill patients are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, while 4.6 percent are in critical condition.

Of the 24,376 people who were tested as of Friday noon, 1,105 or 4.5 percent were positive for the disease, the data showed.

A total of 9 duplicates were removed from the total count, the DOH said. Of these, 3 were labeled as recovered cases.

A total of 14 cases initially labeled as deaths were also found to be recoveries after validation. Meanwhile, 4 cases previously announced as recoveries were found to be deaths, the agency noted.

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Health Secretary Francisco Duque III previously cited the city of Davao, Laguna, Rizal, Benguet and the city of Baguio as COVID-19 hotspots, based on the number of new cases reported compared to the total population.

Meanwhile, the OCTA Research Group estimated that the total number of cases in the Philippines could reach half a million by the end of the year.

More than 71 million people worldwide have contracted COVID-19, according to a current tally by the US-based Johns Hopkins University, the US, India, Brazil, Russia and France have the total cases. Taller.

Since the pandemic began, some 1.6 million people have died, while more than 45 million have recovered from the disease.

The new coronavirus is believed to have first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan a year ago, but its origin remains a mystery to experts.