Active cases rise on 2nd straight day

MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines reported 6,784 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest in 4 days, as the government announced eased lockdown restrictions in most parts of the country starting this weekend.

• READ: Duterte approves NCR Plus shift to GCQ with 'heightened restrictions'

Friday's additional cases pushed the country's overall tally to 1,131,467, of which 58,986 or 5.2 percent are considered active cases.

According to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group, this is the second straight day that the number of those still battling the disease rose, having increased by 3,675 from Thursday's 55,311 active cases.

The said figure is adjusted for duplicates, according to the research unit.

The ABS-CBN IRG added that from May 7 to May 12, the number of active infections declined.

There were 137 more people who died due to the disease, the highest reported in 5 days or since May 9, increasing the country's death toll to 18,958.

This includes 71 cases first tagged as recovered but turned out to be fatalities, according to the health department.

Recoveries climbed by 2,972 to 1,053,523. ABS-CBN's research team said this is the lowest number of fresh recoveries announced by the DOH in nearly a month or since April 17.

The total number of recoveries accounts for 93.1 percent of the country's running tally.

Five laboratories failed to submit data on time.

Based on the latest bulletin, out of 46,034 people who got tested for COVID-19 on Wednesday, 13.1 percent were found positive for the virus.

A total of 41 duplicates, 21 of which were recoveries, have been excluded from the country's total recorded cases.

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President Rodrigo Duterte earlier approved the recommendation of the inter-agency task force on the country's COVID-19 response that downgraded quarantine classifications in most parts of the Philippines, including the capital region and surrounding provinces where a surge in infections was recorded between March and April.

But ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido earlier in the day pointed out that while the country has seen fewer new COVID-19 cases in the past weeks, the positivity rate nationwide remains high.

The health department last week said that this could also be attributed to the lower testing output of accredited laboratories, which is a "problem."

• READ: Are PH COVID-19 cases really declining? DOH points to lower testing figures, sees problem

As of May 12, more than 2.057 million Filipinos already received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose since the government started rolling out its inoculation program in March.

Nearly 566,000, meanwhile, have gotten their 2 doses against the respiratory disease.

• Philippines: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Globally, the novel coronavirus has already infected over 161.2 million people, of which more than 3.3 million people have died, data from the Johns Hopkins University showed.