MANILA — The number of health workers in the Philippines who have died due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has climbed to 58, the Department of Health's latest report showed.

One fatality was posted on Monday, and another on Wednesday. There are no details yet on the profession of the two additional fatalities.

Last week, the DOH logged 16 coronavirus-related fatalities among health workers.

DOH spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the sudden jump in health worker deaths was due to delayed validation.

Vergeire revealed last month that they had 53 deaths in their unofficial tally. But verification was being conducted if the health workers were working as frontliners and if the cause of death was indeed COVID-19.

• READ: Over 1,000 health workers in PH contract COVID-19 during the last week; total nears 9,000

The DOH has been carefully validating the list of health workers infected with COVID-19 as the government allots P1 million each for the family of those who die while battling the disease. Those severely and critically ill with the disease, meanwhile, are entitled to P100,000 each.

As of Sept. 15, the cumulative total of health workers infected with COVID-19 had reached 8,665.

The active cases are 584 as majority, or 8,023, have already recovered.

Of the active cases, half (55%) have mild symptoms and almost 40% are asymptomatic. There are 20 health workers with severe symptoms, while 10 are in critical condition.

Health workers comprise around 3% of the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, which has breached 270,000 this week.