BREAKING: 65 more COVID-19 fatalities push PH’s death toll to 1,599

MANILA, Philippines — At least 65 more deaths due to COVID-19 have been recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, bringing the death toll to 1,599.

On the other hand, DOH said that there are 4,325 additional recoveries, as the total number of patients who recovered from the disease now stands at 20,371.

There are now 57,006 confirmed cases nationwide — of which 35,036 are active — after  another 836 cases were reported.

The DOH says 92.2 percent of all the active cases are mild, another 7.1 percent are asymptomatic, while only 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent are severe and critical, respectively.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the high death and recovery numbers were based on reconciled numbers, which stretches as far as weeks and months ago.

For recoveries, only 282 patients were found to have recovered but the number rose to 4,325 upon reconciling and validating recoveries among COVID-19 patients with mild or no symptoms.

“Sa deaths naman ay meron po tayong 65 na bagong additional deaths reported kaya sa kasalukuyan po ay nasa 1,599 ang total deaths na ating naitatala. With this addition, ang case fatality rate pa rin po natin today ay 2.53 percent,” Vergeire said.

(For deaths, we have 65 additional deaths reported that’s why as of now we have recorded 1,599 total deaths. With this addition, our case fatality rate remains at 2.53 percent.)

“Sa 65 na naitala na deaths, 54 or 83 percent po ang nangyari bago ang June, at sa siyam na deaths nitong July, anim po ang galing sa Cebu province,” she added.

(For the 65 deaths, 54 or 83 percent occurred before June, and of the deaths recorded today that came from July, nine are patients in the Cebu province.)

This increase in deaths came after DOH failed to give an update on the COVID-19 bulletin for Sunday, and hours after reporting the highest single-day spike in casualties, at 162 deaths.

However, health authorities clarified that only 51 of the 162 deaths came in the month of July, 90 were from June, 20 from May and one from April.

JPV