MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Friday a high of 3,045 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the number of total active cases in the country to 40,074.
This is so far the highest additional COVID-19 cases reported this year. Previously, the additional coronavirus cases being added to the count per day in the recent months were only at over 1,000. It then went up to over 2,000 in recent days.
According to DOH, the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, including deaths and recoveries, now stands at 587,704.
The DOH said 178 additional patients have recovered, pushing the number of those who have recovered from the disease to 535,207.
Meanwhile, there were also 19 newly-reported fatalities, which brings the death toll to 12,423.
According to the health department, the active cases comprise 6.8 percent of the total tally, while recoveries and deaths compose 91.1 percent and 2.11 percent of the count, respectively.
It added that eight duplicate entries, including five recoveries, were removed from the case count.
Three cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
The DOH said five laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the DOH reported an additional 52 new cases of the B.1.351 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 from South Africa, bringing the total number of cases of the said variant in the Philippines to 58. The SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.
There were also 31 additional cases of the B.1.1.7 variant from the United Kingdom, bringing the total UK variant cases in the country to 118.
The DOH earlier said in January that the B.1.1.7 variant “demonstrated higher transmissibility but [there is] no evidence that it increased infectivity, pathogenicity, or virulence.”
Meanwhile, it added that the pattern of mutations for the South African variant “suggests higher transmissibility and may have an impact on vaccine efficacy.” However, it added that there is no evidence that the variant causes more severe conditions for COVID-19 patients.
The DOH said there were also additional 42 cases with “mutations of potential clinical significance,” or those that have the N501Y and E484K mutations. The N501Y mutation is linked to increased transmissibility of the virus, while the E484K has a potential effect on vaccine efficacy.