COVID-19 cases in PH now over 20,000; death toll nears 1,000

MANILA, Philippines — More than 20,000 people in the country have so far contracted the virus that causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The Department of Health recorded 634 more cases of COVID-19, of which 313 are “fresh” cases while 321 others are considered “late.” With the recent figures, a total of confirmed cases in the country is at 20,382.

“Fresh cases” or those validated within the past three days, “late cases” or those recorded at least four days ago but were only validated recently.

Meanwhile, the total recoveries currently stand at 4,248 after 95 more patients were able to recover from the severe respiratory disease.

However, the country’s death count rose to 984 after 10 more patients succumbed to COVID-19.

The DOH earlier said there is new evidence that shows that COVID-19 patients who exhibit no symptoms, or at least not yet, can transmit the virus and infect other people.

Based on recent analysis, “pre-symptomatic” transmission may occur. This means that COVID-19 patients who do not exhibit any symptoms yet can already infect other people, especially when the highest viral load in a person occurs one to three days before symptoms occur in a patient.

“[There are pieces of evidence that] transmission occurs from patients who are lab-positive for COVID-19 but have no symptoms yet or report that they have no symptoms but have very mild symptoms,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

Metro Manila is currently under less stringent quarantine protocols after the government decided to allow more movement in the metropolis and allow more industries to open up for the economy.

Across the globe, more than 6.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus, of which about 386,000 have died while 2.8 million have recovered.