MANILA—The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines breached 7,000 on the same day the government announced another extension of the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and other places.

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The Department of Health on Friday recorded 211 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total to 7,192 cases.

The number of recoveries continued to increase with 40 new recovered patients, or a total of 762.

There were, however, 15 new COVID-related deaths, bringing the sum of coronavirus fatalities in the Philippines to 477.

Since a week ago, the total recovered patients have been higher than deaths.

The DOH has attributed the increase in recoveries to their inclusion of people who recovered while on home quarantine. Only patients who get a negative COVID-19 test using the PCR method are included in the official recovery tally.

While the health department expects more people to recover, it has also been preparing for new cases. On Friday, the national government announced that it will be extending the ECQ in Metro Manila and other regions for two weeks while placing other areas under different general community quarantine.

The DOH said the extension would allow the country to increase its testing capacity and to enable hospitals to prepare for more critically ill patients.

Worldwide, there have been 2.7 million people infected with COVID-19 since the pandemic started. Of this number, more than 740,000 have recovered and more than 190,000 have died.