PH COVID-19 caseload nears 430,000 as 10,579 more patients recover

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ total coronavirus infections reached 429,864 after the Department of Health (DOH) announced 2,076 additional cases nationwide on Sunday.

According to DOH’s daily case bulletin, Quezon City recorded the highest increase in cases with 137, followed by Laguna with 122, Cavite with 103, Batangas with 96, and Angeles City with 79.

A new batch of 10,579 recoveries were also recorded, bringing the total to 398,624.

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

Meanwhile, 40 have been added to the COVID-19 death toll, which is now at 8,373.

Due to the surge in recoveries, the active cases are now down to 22,867. This accounts for 5.3% of the country’s total COVID-19 cases.

There were 7 recovered cases found to be negative and were removed from the total case count after final validation.

“Moreover, 8 cases previously tagged as recovered were reclassified as deaths,” the DOH said.

The count does not include the latest data from seven testing laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time, the DOH said.

JE