MANILA — The Philippines reported 1,734 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday as the country's cumulative total of recoveries from the infectious disease breached the 500,000 mark.

According to the latest COVID-19 bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH), the country's total coronavirus infections climbed to 543,282, of which, 500,335 or 92.1 percent are recoveries.

The DOH recorded 423 new recovered patients, and 68 new fatalities that raised the death toll to 11,469.

It is the 13th straight day that the number of additional COVID-related deaths counted more than 50.

The case fatality rate is still at 2.11%, which is the highest since July 31, 2020, according to the ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team.

Only two laboratories failed to submit results of their testing activities on time, said the DOH.

A total of 12 cases, 7 tagged as recoveries, were removed from the total tally for being duplicate entries.

There were also 52 cases initially tagged as recoveries that turned out to be deaths upon final validation.

Of the 31,478 active cases in the country, 87.6% have mild symptoms, 6.9% are asymptomatic, 2.5% are in critical condition, 2.4% have severe symptoms, and 0.62% have moderate symptoms.

Although the DOH no longer releases the list of areas with the most number of new cases, Dr. Alethea de Guzman of the Epidemiology Bureau said that they are currently monitoring the increase in COVID-19 cases in Regions 2, 7 and Caraga.

De Guzman said, however, that health care facilities there are still within the safe zone in terms of bed occupancy.

• DOH observing rise in COVID-19 cases in Regions 2, 7, Caraga as national figures 'plateau'

Philippine authorities have been preparing for the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, which are expected to be delivered middle of this month.

The Philippines has lagged behind some of its Southeast Asian neighbors in the rollout of vaccines against the coronavirus.

• Documents snag arrival of Pfizer's COVID-19 shots in Philippines: Palace

There are almost 45 million people currently infected with COVID-19 worldwide. Since the start of the pandemic, 107.4 million people have contracted the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. Of those, almost 2.4 million have died and 60 million have recovered.

RELATED VIDEO

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv