Members of the Philippine National Police check motorists coming from Muntinlupa City heading to Cavite on March 22, 2021, the start of the implemented GCQ with additional restrictions in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News
MANILA (UPDATED) — The Philippines recorded another record-high number of new COVID-19 infections at 8,019, bringing the country's total cases to 671,792 on Monday when new restrictions are being imposed in Metro Manila and four surrounding provinces following the spike in new cases.
This is the 3rd time in 4 days that the country registered a record-high additional number of cases. For the last 4 days, the daily tally of new infections had been over 7,000.
Only two laboratories failed to submit their results on time, the Department of Health said.
According to the the ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team, more than half or 4,103 of the 8,019 additional cases reported on Monday were from the National Capital Region. This is followed by 1,327 from Region 4A, 542 from Region 3, 487 from Region 7 and 424 from the Cordillera Administrative Region.
There are 4 new COVID-19 related deaths reported, raising the total fatalities to 12,972, which accounts for 1.93 percent of the cumulative total cases.
Total recoveries went up by 103 to 577,850.
This brings the total number of active cases or current infections to 80,970, or 12.1% of the total.
This is the second highest number of active cases reported in a single day, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group, after the 81,851 logged on August 15, 2020.
Analysts have attributed the increase in cases to the continued spread of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. The government has refused to place the country in stricter quarantine classification in consideration of the economy, but it implemented more restrictions for the next 2 weeks.
Of those currently battling the disease, 95.4% have mild symptoms, 2.2% are asymptomatic, 0.9% are in critical condition, 1% have severe symptoms, and 0.52% have moderate symptoms.
Meanwhile, 21 cases, 7 tagged as recovered, were removed from the official tally for being duplicate entries.
The DOH on Monday said more transmissible COVID-19 cases are now detected in all cities in Metro Manila, but said it is not the main driver of the surge in cases.
It said the root cause of the increase is still the non-compliance of people with health protocols.
The ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team said NCR now has an ICU bed occupancy rate of 74%, which is within the high-risk classification.
The DOH said it is looking at the possibility of augmenting hospital workforce to enable additional bed allocation for COVID-19 patients.
There are almost 50.7 million people currently infected with COVID-19 worldwide. Since the start of the pandemic, almost 123.3 million people have contracted the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. Of those, more than 2.7 million have died and almost 69.9 million have recovered.
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