PH’s COVID-19 cases soar to 28,459 as DOH logs 661 additional patients

MANILA, Philippines — There are now 28,459 cases of COVID-19 in the country as 661 additional patients have been recorded, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Friday.

Of the new cases, 460 were labeled as “fresh” and 201 were tagged as “late.”

Fresh cases refer to those that were validated in the past three days.

As for late cases, DOH spokesperson and Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire explained about this during the online press briefing.

“Para naman po sa mga late cases, nakapagtala po tayo ng 201 cases na ang mga resulta ay lumabas mahigit tatlong araw na ang nakalipas, ngunit ngayon lang na-validate dahil ngayon lamang din naisumite ng mga laboratoryo sa Epidemiology Bureau,” she said.

(As for late cases, we have recorded 201 cases, which results were released more than three days ago but were only validated now because it was only now that they were submitted by laboratories to the Epidemiology Bureau.)

Meanwhile, 288 more patients were able to recover from the contagious respiratory illness, This raised the country’s total recoveries to 7,378.

On the other hand, DOH reported that the Philippines’ COVID-19 fatality count increased to 1,130 with the death of 14.

In the same online press briefing, Vergeire announced that the Philippines already has 62 licensed laboratories for COVID-19 testing as of June 18. Of which, she added, were 46 laboratories that use real-time RT-PCR while 16 use GeneXpert.

Worldwide, COVID-19 has infected over 8.5 million people and killed at least 456,650.

COVID-19 is a respiratory ailment caused by the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2, which outbreak started in China’s Wuhan City in Hubei province in late 2019.

KGA