PH cases near 1 million as DOH reports 8,162 new infections

MANILA, Philippines — With more laboratories confirming coronavirus infections, the Philippines’ total COVID-19 cases would likely breach the one-million mark on Monday as the country joins the observance of World Immunization Week.

The Department of Health (DOH) reported 8,162 new infections on Sunday based on laboratory test results, pushing the total to 997,523. Less than 10,000 new cases have been reported for the past seven days.

The total number of deaths reached 16,783 after 109 more people were found to have died of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Nearly half or 52 of the new fatalities were previously tagged by authorities as recoveries.

More than 100 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported for the past five days.

Continuing its daily “mass recovery” protocol, the DOH declared 20,509 new recoveries, bringing the total to 903,665. It has reported almost 200,000 recoveries in the past eight days based on its time-based protocol, where mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases are considered recovered after completing a 14-day quarantine.

The country still has 77,075 active cases, of which 95.5 percent are mild, 1.5 percent asymptomatic, 0.84 percent moderate, 1.2 percent severe, and 1 percent critical.

The DOH said 16.7 percent tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, out of 47,970 people tested on Saturday. Two testing laboratories did not operate on April 23 while eight did not submit data to the department.

As the World Immunization Week spearheaded by the World Health Organization starts on Monday, a vaccine expert called on the public to trust vaccines, saying these have eradicated life-threatening diseases for generations of Filipinos.

“Vaccines should not harm but save lives… And we can really hope immunization to bring us out of this pandemic,” Dr. Lulu Bravo, founding president and executive director of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination, said at the Laging Handa televised briefing last Saturday.

Bravo, who also chairs the National Adverse Events Following Immunization Committee in the Philippines, said ongoing vaccinations in the United Kingdom, Israel, and some parts of the United States had led to the reduction of COVID-19 cases.

—WITH A REPORT FROM JEROME ANING