MANILA, Philippine — The country’s COVID-19 active cases dropped to its lowest level in three months, but new cases also increased to its highest level in two weeks, or since the government eased quarantine restrictions.
The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Sunday that the number of active cases fell to 27,115, the lowest since July 31, after the DOH declared the recovery of 17,727 people with mild or no symptoms who had completed a two-week quarantine.
But the number of new cases also surged by 2,396, the most cases since the government eased quarantine restrictions in a bid to revive an economy in its worst recession in years.
The new data brought the national tally to 383,113 since the outbreak began in January, but 91 percent of that number, or 348,760 cases, have already recovered.
But the DOH also reported 17 more deaths on Sunday, bringing the total death toll to 7,238, or 1.89 percent of the national total and 26th in the list of countries with the most number of deaths in the world.
Global tally
In terms of total number of infections, the Philippines was the 22nd country with the most infections and the second Southeast Asian country with the most number of cases behind Indonesia which reported 410,088 on Sunday with 13,869 deaths, according to the continuing tally of the Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
Of the 27,115 active cases in the country, 24,810, or 91.5 percent, showed mild or no symptoms while 840, or 3.1 percent, have severe conditions while 1,464, or 5.4 percent, are in critical condition.
Davao City had the most number of new cases with 148, closely followed by Quezon City with 146, Laguna with 122, Cavite 112 and Benguet with 100.
The number of Filipinos abroad who have been infected has also decreased slightly, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), which reported five new infections.
Filipinos infected abroad
The number of Filipino expatriates who have been infected thus reached 11,244, although there were no new fatalities and 17 new recoveries.
There are currently 3,148 patients undergoing treatment while 7,279 have recovered and 817 have died.
“Compared to last week’s percentages, the total number of recoveries saw a slight increase to 64.74 percent, those under treatment remaining at 28 percent, while the total percentage of COVID-19 cases slightly decreased to 7.27 percent,” the DFA said in a statement on Saturday night.
To date, there are 1,810 cases in Asia and the Pacific region with 510 patients undergoing treatment. A total of 1,291 patients in the region have recovered while nine have succumbed to the illness.
In Europe, 1,238 cases have been reported with 176 patients still undergoing treatment. A total of 965 have recovered while 97 died in the region.
Price controls
The Middle East and Africa have reported 7,380 cases. The region has recorded 2,306 patients undergoing treatment, 4,542 recoveries, and 532 fatalities.
In the Americas, a total of 816 cases were recorded with 156 still undergoing treatment, 481 patients recovered and 179 died.
While the national data showed slight improvements, the chair of the Senate health committee on Sunday urged the DOH and the Department of Trade and Industry to impose price controls on coronavirus test kits and other medical supplies amid surging demand due to the pandemic.
In a statement, Sen. Bong Go expressed alarm over reports from the DOH that a number of facilities were imposing additional fees to immediately facilitate the processing of the specimen and expedite the validation and release of results. He cited news reports about people forced to shell out almost P20,000 to get their COVID-19 test results within hours.