MANILA, Philippines —A total of 218 more people in the country tested positive for the virus that causes the COVID-19, while 52 more patients were able to recover from the disease, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Friday.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 5,878 and the number of recoveries to 487 as of 4 p.m. April 17.
The number of recoveries continues to overtake the country’s death toll as the DOH records 25 more fatalities, raising the total of deaths to 387.
The health department earlier said that the actual number of recoveries could be higher than that recorded as there are cases that were not reported to the agency.
Special Assistant to the Health Secretary Beverly Ho said that only those recorded by DOH as recoveries were those who underwent repeat testing.
She explained that recovered patients need not undergo repeat testing as they were displaying clinical improvement and no longer showing COVID-19 symptoms.
“Ang ating mga recoveries ay maaari pang tumaas dahil hindi pa po dito kasama ang mga pasyenteng clinically recovered or ‘yung mga pinayagan nang umuwi ng kanilang doktor at inabisuhang mag-self-quarantine,” Ho said in an earlier virtual press briefing.
(The recovery rate is expected to go higher because patients deemed clinically recovered or those allowed to go home by their doctors and told to go on self-quarantine are not included here.)
Globally, there are more than 2.1 million people who have COVID-19, over 140,000 of which have succumbed to the disease while nearly 550,000 have recovered.