COVID-19 active cases in the Philippines surpass 91,000-mark

MANILA, Philippines — COVID-19 active cases in the country breached the 91,000-mark on Wednesday as health authorities detected 6,666 additional SARS-CoV-2 infections.

According to the Department of Health (DOH), the nationwide tally of COVID-19 cases now stands at 684,311, including the 91,754 patients who are currently sick with the respiratory disease.

The number of recovered patients, meanwhile, reached 579,518 after 1,072 new coronavirus-positive individuals survived the ailment. But 47 new fatalities pushed the death toll to 13,039.

DOH said the 91,754 active cases represent 13.4 percent of the total case count while recoveries and deaths were 84.7 percent and 1.91 percent, respectively.

DOH also said that 97.8 percent of the sum active patients were mild and asymptomatic.

Moreover, DOH reported Wednesday that eight duplicate entries, including four recoveries, were removed from its nationwide data as 11 cases that were previously tagged as recovered individuals were reclassified as fatalities after final validation.

Seven laboratories, however, were not able to submit their results to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on Tuesday, DOH noted.

In a media forum also on Wednesday, Dr. Alethea De Guzman of DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau said the country has surpassed the peak of COVID-19 cases from July last year, with cases coming mostly from Metro Manila and Calabarzon.

She added that the country is reporting 5,644 average new daily cases for the third week of March and that new cases this month are 4.4 times higher compared to the reported figures at the start of January this year.

De Guzman also said that Metro Manila is currently at high risk, while Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Western Visayas, and Caraga are at moderate risk levels.

While all regional healthcare utilization remains at a safe zone, she said rates in provinces or highly-urbanized cities may already be at high or critical risk.

The latest data from the health department showed the country now has 223 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK variant), 152 cases of the B.1.351 (South African variant), one case of P.1 (Brazil variant), and 104 cases of P.3, a variant of new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 found in the Philippines.

The first three variants have been associated with higher transmissibility of the virus. The P.3 variant, meanwhile, has not yet been declared as a variant of concern since current data is still insufficient, according to DOH.

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