MANILA — The Department of Health reported 661 additional COVID-19 cases or a total of 28,459 confirmed cases in the country on Friday, over two weeks since quarantine restrictions were eased.

Of the additional cases, 460 are considered “fresh” while 201 are “late cases.”

Fresh cases refer to those whose test results were released within the last 3 days, while late cases are those whose results were released four days ago or earlier.

The 460 fresh cases is the third highest reported in a single day since the DOH started using the new classification, while the 201 late cases is the highest reported in the week.

Of the fresh cases, 277 are from the National Capital Region while only 21 are from Region 7 or Central Visayas, which has seen a spike in cases in recent weeks.

A total of 162 are tagged to have come from “others,” which could refer to other regions or the fact that the patient does not have any location data.

Of the late cases, 40 are from NCR and 103 are from Region 7, while 58 are tagged as coming from “others."

NCR and Region 7 have been reporting higher numbers of new cases in the past weeks. The DOH earlier said it sent epidemiologists to Cebu City, the epicenter of the outbreak in Region 7, to study how the virus has spread there.

Asked if the Philippines is already winning the fight against COVID-19, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the indicators are good.

“Ayon sa ating datos, 7.06 araw ang case doubling time para sa buong bansa at 35.06 percent ang critical care utilization rate. Ibig sabihin nito, kumpara sa unang dumami ang bilang ng kaso simula ng Marso higit na bumagal ang pagdami ng kaso ngayon,” she said,

(Based on our data, the case doubling time for the whole country is at 7.06 days while the critical care utilization rate is 35.06 percent. This means that compared to when it started in March, the increase in the number of cases has slowed down.)

The DOH also logged 288 new recovered patients or a total of 7,378 recoveries since the pandemic started. For the last 9 days, the Philippines has had more than 240 new recoveries per day.

There were also 14 new coronavirus-related deaths — the highest in five days — or a total of 1,130 fatalities since the virus reached the country earlier this year. Twelve of these new deaths happened during the first two weeks of June (June 4 to 14). The others were presumed to have happened in previous months.

In its case bulletin, the DOH also noted that it removed one patient from its total case count.

Worldwide, 8.5 million people have already been infected with COVID-19, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. Of those, 4.1 million have already recovered while 454,000 have died.