PH ends pandemic year with 474,000 COVID-19 cases

MANILA, Philippines — In its last coronavirus update of the year, the Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday said the Philippines had 474,064 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 1,541 of which were new infections.

Based on DOH data, there were 25,024 active cases, with patients undergoing treatment or quarantine. Of these, 80.8 percent were mild, 10.4 percent asymptomatic, 2.9 percent severe, and 5.5 percent in critical condition.

But the country also capped the year with 296 new recoveries, bringing the number of recovered patients to 439,796. The health department also tallied 14 new deaths, bringing up total fatalities to 9,244.

The DOH also announced that it removed nine duplicate cases from the total case count, while four cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths.

Earlier, the government banned the entry of passengers from several countries to prevent the entry of the new strain of the novel coronavirus.

The ban initially covered the United Kingdom and was expanded to include 19 more countries, namely Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Israel, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Switzerland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, South Africa, Canada, and Spain.

But the government is still awaiting advice from the World Health Organization before deciding whether to restrict the entry of arrivals from the United States to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus variant, according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr.

The Food and Drug Administration also said on Thursday that the application for Emergency Use Authorization of American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer in the Philippines might be approved before the end of January.