MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines' number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases has reached 115,980 as the Department of Health reported 3,462 new confirmed coronavirus infections Wednesday.
This is the 6th highest number of additional cases reported in a single day since the country logged its first case of the disease on Jan. 30. Wednesday's tally of additional cases were sourced from 84 out of 94 operational testing laboratories.
With 222 additional recovered patients and 9 new COVID-related deaths, there are now 47,587 active cases in the country. Active cases refer to patients who are still infected with COVID-19 and are staying either in the hospital or under home quarantine.
The DOH said 84% of the additional cases were from the last two weeks.
The regions with the most number of additional cases are the National Capital Region (2,434 cases), Laguna (105), Rizal (101), Cavite (73), and Cebu province (62).
Of the new 9 deaths reported, 8 happened in July, and 1 in June, the DOH said. The deaths came from NCR (4 fatalities), Region 7 (4) and Region 11 (1).
The total number of recoveries is 66,270, while the total number of fatalities is 2,123.
The DOH said it removed 75 duplicate cases from the previous tally.
“We have also updated the outcomes of 2 cases. One was previously reported as death but updated as recovered, and one case was previously reported as recovered but updated as death after final validation; these are already included in the count of new deaths and recoveries,” the DOH added.
ABS-CBN Data Analytics Head Edson Guido said that at this pace, the Philippines might surpass Indonesia's total number of COVID-19 cases by Thursday.
The Philippines has been logging record-high numbers in terms of new COVID-19 cases since late July, following the easing of quarantine measures and the gradual opening up of the economy.
On Tuesday, additional COVID-19 cases reached a record-high 6,352.
The capital region and nearby provinces on Tuesday reverted to a stricter community quarantine, following a call from health workers for a “timeout” to arrest the spread of the respiratory disease.
The DOH has vowed to collaborate with medical societies and to come up with new strategies in the next two weeks.
Researchers from the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo Tomas estimate that cases may reach 150,000 by the end of August.
Global deaths due to COVID-19 has reached 700,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. A total of 18.5 million people have been infected with the virus since the start of the pandemic, while 11 million of them have already recovered.
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