PH logs 1,156 add'l COVID-19 cases, Davao City tops anew among areas with new infections

MANILA (UPDATE) — The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday recorded 1,156 additional COVID-19 cases, raising the Philippines’ total to 452,988.

This is the 17th straight day that additional cases counted fewer than 2,000, and the 5th straight day below the 1,500-mark. 

The newly-reported cases, however, do not include data from 5 laboratories that failed to submit results to the COVID-19 Repository System on Tuesday, the DOH said. 

Davao City led the areas in the country with the most number of new infections with 126, followed by Quezon City with 66, Rizal with 64, Bulacan with 56, and the city of Manila with 38.

On Dec. 2, 3, 7, and 11, Davao City also recorded the highest number of additional cases. In some other days this month, the top spot was occupied either by Rizal province, Quezon City, Batangas province, or Benguet, among others.

Meanwhile, there were 425 new recoveries, pushing the total number of recovered patients to 419,282. The total recoveries account for 92.6 percent of the total recorded cases.

The health department also recorded 21 new coronavirus-related fatalities. The death toll stood at 8,833.

A total of 24,873 or 5.5 percent of the total number of cases are considered active infections. The DOH said 91.4 percent of patients currently ill are asymptomatic or exhibiting mild symptoms, while 5.6 percent are critically ill.

Of the 23,567 people who were tested as of Tuesday noon, 1,303 or 5.5 percent were confirmed positive for the disease, data showed.

A total of 7 duplicates were removed from the total tally, said the DOH. 

The agency also removed a death and 3 recovered cases. 

Meanwhile, 7 cases initially tagged as recoveries were found to be deaths after validation. 

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The OCTA Research Group earlier estimated that the total number of cases in the Philippines might reach half a million by the end of the year.

Over 73 million people worldwide have contracted COVID-19, according to a running tally by the US-based Johns Hopkins University, with the US, India, Brazil, Russia, and France having the highest total cases.

Since the pandemic began, some 1.6 million people have died while more than 41.6 million have recovered from the disease, the same tally showed.

The novel coronavirus is believed to have first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan a year ago but its origin remains a mystery to experts.

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