Philippines reports record increase of 382 deaths due to COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — An all-time high increase of 382 fatalities due to COVID-19 was reported Tuesday as nationwide infections hit 812,760.

The Department of Health (DOH), however, quickly clarified that 341 of the 382 deaths happened before April as it explained that the daily total fatalities reported includes information from as early as March.

According to DOH, they encountered technical issues with the data collection system which led to lower reported deaths in the last week of March and the first week of April.

Nevertheless, the country’s death toll reached an all-time high of 13,817.

“A technical issue with the case collection systems resulted in lower reporting of COVID-19 death counts over the past week.  The said issue caused incomplete fatality numbers and data to be encoded and as a result, there were 341 deaths prior to April 2021 that went unreported,” it said in its April 6 bulletin on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The number of deaths reported today (382) already includes the said deaths not reported in previous counts,” it added.

In terms of new cases, DOH said it documented 9,373 fresh infections as well as 313 more patients who recovered from the disease, pushing total recoveries to 646,381. As of April 6, COVID-19 active cases in the country stand at 152,562, it added.

DOH said majority of the active patients or 97.5 percent manifested mild symptoms while 1.1 percent were asymptomatic. Some 0.5 percent of the tally have severe symptoms while another 0.5 percent are in critical condition.

To date, the COVID-19 bed utilization rate for Metro Manila’s intensive care units is at 82 percent while 71 percent of isolation beds in the region are occupied, according to DOH.

KGA