PH total Covid-19 cases now 545,300; new cases top 2,000-mark

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s total Covid-19 cases climbed to 545,300 on Friday after the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 2,022 new cases of infection.

The total number of active coronavirus cases now stands at 33,151, based on the latest case bulletin of the DOH.

Meanwhile, additional 333 recoveries were recorded, bringing the number of Covid-19 survivors in the country to 500,654.

There were also 26 newly-reported fatalities, pushing the death toll to 11,495.

According to DOH, the active cases compose just 6.1 percent of the total caseload, while the recoveries and deaths make up 91.8 and 2.11 percent of the tally, respectively.

Of the active cases, 86.9 percent are mild, 7.8 percent are asymptomatic, 2.4 percent are critical, 2.3 percent are severe, and 0.63 are moderate infections.

Four duplicates, including three recoveries, were removed from the total case count.

Eleven cases that were previously tagged as recovered were also reclassified as deaths after final validation.

DOH said the additional figures do not cover data from four laboratories that failed to submit their results on time.

In an online media forum on Thursday, Dr. Alethea de Guzman, medical specialist at the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, noted that there has been a plateau or a downward trend of Covid-19 cases in the country except for Cagayan Valley, Central Visayas, Soccsksargen and Caraga.

She added that the average number of deaths per month due to Covid-19 has also been going down since September last year. However, she explained that the number of Covid-19 cases being reported by the DOH daily is higher than the actual deaths because these include fatalities that were not immediately validated.

The initial batch of Covid-19 vaccines is expected to arrive in the Philippines in the first quarter of this year, as the government hopes for an end to the pandemic that has taken a huge toll on the country’s health and economic sectors.

A total of 107 million Covid-19 cases have so far been recorded globally since the pandemic began, according to the Covid-19 dashboard of the Johns Hopkins University. Of this number, 60 million patients have recuperated and 2.3 million patients have died, leaving some 45 million active cases worldwide.

EDV