MANILA — The number of active COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reached 53,649 on Monday, as President Rodrigo Duterte lauded the government's response in his fifth State of the Nation Address.

Active cases refer to patients who have yet to recover or are still under quarantine.

The health department reported 1,657 additional cases, bringing Philippines' total tally to 82,040 or just 3,000 short of the University of the Philippines OCTA Research Group’s projection of 85,000 by the end of July.

Duterte also said in his annual report to the nation that the government intervention "has prevented 1.3 million to 3.5 million infections."

ACTIVE CASES ON THE RISE

Of the 1,657 additional cases, which is the lowest in 5 days, 1,017 are from the National Capital Region (NCR) alone, 89 from Laguna, 38 from Cavite, 31 from Cebu province, and 31 from Rizal.

The Department of Health (DOH) has attributed NCR's increase in cases to the gradual opening up of the economy. It is the 12th straight day that the number of additional cases from NCR is more than 900.

More than half of the additional cases or 901 are late cases, which refer to test results released at least 4 days ago but were only validated recently. Meanwhile, 756 are fresh cases or those released within the last 3 days.

The data is from only 59 out of 90 current operational labs.

Among active cases, patients with mild symptoms are at 90%, asymptomatic at 9.1%, those with severe symptoms at 0.5%, and those in critical condition at 0.4%.

The DOH also reported 359 additional recovered patients or a total of 26,446 recoveries.

Additional COVID-related deaths for Monday was at 16 or a total of 1,945.

“Of the 16 deaths, 14 (88%) in July, 1 (6%) in June, 1 (6%) in May. Deaths were from Region 7 (8 or 50%), NCR (7 or 44%),Region 12 (1 or 6%),” the DOH said.

The Department said it removed 65 duplicate cases from the previous total count. This included 23 recovered cases and 2 deaths.