PH logs 3,257 addt’l cases as 20 labs fail to submit on time

MANILA— COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reached 279,526 on Friday after the Department of Health reported 3,257 newly-confirmed cases.

This is the 11th straight day that the daily tally was more than 3,000.

The DOH said a total of 20 laboratories failed to submit their data in time for the report. 

Among the areas with the most number of newly-announced cases are the National Capital Region with 997, Bulacan with 282, Cavite with 179, Negros Occidental with 152 and Cebu with 127. 

Of the newly-announced cases, 81% were from the last 2 weeks.

With 733 additional recovered patients and 47 additional coronavirus-related deaths, there are now 65,906 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.

Of the 47 additional deaths, 18 were from September while 13 were from August. Almost half were from NCR.

The total number of recoveries is at 208,790 while the total number of fatalities is at 4,830.

The DOH also reported 20 duplicate cases, 15 tagged as recoveries and 1 as death that were removed from the tally. 

There were also 24 cases reported as recovered that turned out to be deaths (14) and active cases (10). “There was also one (1) case that was previously reported as a death but has been validated as recovered,” the DOH said.

The Philippines saw a decline in cases in the early part of September but it went back up to the 3,000 to 4,000 level. This as the DOH warned that additional cases would be irregularly high this week as laboratories try to catch up with their delayed reporting.

• READ: ‘Irregularly high number’ of COVID cases expected this week as labs catch up on submission — DOH

However, the DOH also acknowledged the increase in cases in many parts of the country. It said it is studying the current trend in cases.

• READ: DOH studying increase in COVID-19 cases, but says PH ‘faring better’ at hospital occupancy

The UP OCTA Research Group earlier estimated that the Philippines would have 310,000 to 330,000 total COVID-19 cases by the end of September.

Since the start of the pandemic, 30.19 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 virus around the world, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. Of those, 946,000 have died and 20.5 million have recovered.