PH virus count about 470,000; number of tests drops as labs close for vacation

MANILA (TO UPDATE) – The Philippines confirmed 883 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 469,886.

The Health Department also reported 7,635 new recoveries, bringing the total number of Filipinos who recovered from the disease to 438,678.

This meant that the country has a total of 22,099 active cases as of 4 p.m. Sunday.

Forty-two more deaths from the disease were reported, bringing the death toll from COVID-19 in the Philippines to 9,109.

The DOH said the decline in cases over the holiday season was to be expected given the closure of many private labs and the decline in patients seen by those that reopened.

“As of December 25, 148 labs were open, 87 of which previously committed to DOH to remain open. Of these 148 labs, 34 reported seeing zero patients during the day, while the remainder reported a decrease in their census”.

While the number of new cases fell below a thousand today, the number of tests performed also fell to less than half from the previous days.

The number of tests on December 25 (13,482) was the lowest since June 22. The number of tests on December 26 (11,510 at 12nn) was even lower.

The positivity rate, or the number of cases that tested positive out of the total number of tests, also increased to 6.6 percent, from 4.9 percent in Dece. 25.

Rizal province reported 66 new cases, the most for any province or city today. Quezon City reported 50 new cases, while Benguet had 47, Davao City had 42, and the City of Manila had 35.

A new strain of the novel coronavirus, which was first reported in the UK, has spread globally, with Singapore confirming its first case of the variant on December 24, while Japan confirmed 5 cases from people who recently traveled. to the UK.

The Philippines has already suspended travel from the UK until the end of the year due to the new variant.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said on Saturday that a recent traveler who flew in from the UK tested positive for COVID-19, but that did not mean he was carrying the new variant of the virus that was discovered there.

If the COVID-19 outbreak worsens due to the new variant, President Rodrigo Duterte said he could impose new blockades.

The government has said that it intends to use 4 COVID-19 vaccines from Russia and China for the first 3 months of 2021, even as the country has yet to receive requests for the use of emergency vaccines for the drug.

COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Covax, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and Moderna will arrive in the third quarter, Malacanang said.

The country’s first COVID-19 case was that of a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, China.

Worldwide, the new coronavirus has infected more than 80.3 million people and caused nearly 1.75 million deaths since it first appeared in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, according to the Resource Center. of Johns Hopkins Coronavirus.

The United States remains the most affected country with more than 18.98 million infections and more than 331,000 deaths.

India follows the US with more than 10.18 million infections. Brazil ranks third with more than 7.46 million infections, but is second in terms of deaths with more than 190,000 deaths from COVID-19.