MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health on Saturday logged 2,109 new Covid-19 infections, raising to 523,516 the total number of confirmed cases in the country.
The DOH also reported 146 new recoveries, bringing up total recoveries to 475,904. There were also 71 fatalities, raising the total death toll to 10,669.
The recoveries and the deaths left the country with 36,943 active cases, of which 85.2 percent were mild, 9.7 percent asymptomatic, 2.6 percent critical, 2.1 percent severe and 0.44 percent moderate.
In Passi, Iloilo province, Covid-19 cases have risen to 220, Mayor Stephen Palmares said on Saturday.
Palmares placed the city under enhanced community quarantine after more than 160 market vendors tested positive for the virus.
The Passi City Public Market was also placed on lockdown.
Palmares said the cases started from a local government employee who had a stall at the Passi market.
He said the employee infected seven market vendors.
“We were alarmed, the entire city officials and the Covid team, that seven vendors were positive,” he said.
He said Passi had tested 800 individuals so far.
As this developed, a testing advocate and diagnostics expert on Saturday said more local governments were turning to faster, cheaper and more reliable antigen tests to detect and prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Dr. Jose Miguel Vergara, former Bureau of Food and Drugs director and now chief medical officer of LabX Corp., said his company had received more orders and inquiries for antigen test kits that boast of 96 percent sensitivity/accuracy and almost 100 percent specificity.
LabX is the local distributor of Sofia 2 manufactured by US-based Quidel Corp. as well as FINA and AgILA antigen tests made by Lansion Biotechnology Co. Ltd of China.
Vergara said these diagnostic kits use dry fluorescence immunoassay technology or machines with laser analyzers to detect the Covid-19 virus.
“Results are out in as short as 15 minutes and at almost half the cost of RT-PCR or reverse transciption polymerase chain reaction tests,” he said. —With a report from Leila B. Salaverria