PH COVID-19 tally surpasses 370K; recoveries jump to over 328K

FILE – Health workers perform swab test to clients at Philippine Red Cross in Mandaluyong City on Thursday, September 23. INQUIRER/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — There are now a total of 370,028 confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines as the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,223 additional infections on Sunday.

In its daily case bulletin, the DOH also announced the recoveries of 14,944 more. This brings the total number of recoveries to 328,036.

Most of the recoveries are due to the DOH’s weekly Oplan Recovery scheme which tags a patient as recovered after spending a certain amount of time in quarantine and with the loss of symptoms, even without a confirmatory coronavirus test.

Meanwhile, 43 more people succumbed to COVID-19. The total death toll now stands at 6,977.

Excluding recoveries and deaths, 35,015 are deemed active cases, of which 82% have mild symptoms, 11.3% are asymptomatic, 2.4% are severe cases, and 4.2% are in critical condition. Active cases are patients who are still infected with COVID-19 and are staying in hospitals or are currently under quarantine.

Of the additional cases, 112 are from Quezon City, 111 from Laguna, 109 from Rizal, 79 from Cavite, and 74 from Batangas.

A total of 2,059 or 93% of the new cases occurred within the recent 14 days. The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks are the National Capital Region (537 or 26%), Region 4A (397 or 19%), and Region 3 (165 or 8%).

There were 14 duplicate cases that were removed from the previous tally, including nine tagged as recoveries.

“Moreover, 11 cases previously tagged as recovered were reclassified as deaths,” the DOH noted.

Sunday’s data came from all but 16 DOH-accredited laboratories.

/MUF