FILE PHOTO: Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (greenish brown) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (pink), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/Handout via REUTERS.
MANILA, Philippines — The country’s COVID-19 cases saw a sharp rise on Friday, as the Department of Health (DOH) reported 8,162 new infections.
DOH’s COVID-19 bulletin also showed that the country’s active case count shot back to 53,770, compared to the past few days where active infections were below 50,000.
There were 3,017 recoveries recorded on Friday, for a total recovery count of 1.134 million.
All in all, there are 1,209,154 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.
Friday’s number of new infections is also the highest since the National Capital Region Plus bubble — composed of Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal — transitioned from a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) into a general community quarantine (GCQ) on May 15.
The bubble was previously under ECQ and MECQ due to the COVID-19 surge last March and April, which filled hospitals in the area.
Most of the patients or 93.2 percent of active cases have still exhibited mild symptoms only, while 2.2 percent were asymptomatic. At least 1.8 percent of the patients currently have severe symptoms while 1.4 percent are in critical condition.
Of the 49,162 tests conducted from May 26, DOH said that 12.8 percent tested positive.
In terms of COVID-19 bed capacity in the National Capital Region, which saw a surge last month, 57 percent of intensive care unit beds have been utilized while 41 percent of isolation beds are occupied.
The DOH said that 24 duplicate entries were removed from the total case count, of which 19 are recoveries. Also, 122 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified to deaths after further validation.
All laboratories were operational since May 26, but four labs were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.
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