A medical frontliner administers a swab test on a resident. Image from Facebook/ Tuguegarao City Information Office
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday recorded 6,686 new COVID-19 infections in the country, which brought the total case count to 1,300,349.
In its daily case bulletin, the DOH said there were 61,345 active cases. Of this number, 91.6 percent are mild, 4.3 percent asymptomatic, 1.2 percent critical, 1.7 percent severe and 1.15 percent moderate. Friday’s active cases were the highest since May 8, when there were 61,673 active infections.
The DOH said 3,190 recovered, bringing total survivors to 1,216,467. But 196 died, raising the death toll to 22,507.
The DOH said three labs were unable to submit their data.
Moreover, the health department said 127 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths following final validation.
On Thursday, 3.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport—the biggest single-day arrival of doses.
One million were procured from Sinovac, while more than 2.2 million were Pfizer doses from the COVAX facility.
The DOH on Friday warned that lying about a nonexistent comorbidity to jump the vaccine line could have serious consequences.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online briefing that lying and falsifying documents to make it appear that one has a comorbidity is a violation of Republic Act No. 11332, or the Law on Reporting of Communicable Diseases.
“Falsifying an illness on public record has corresponding penalties, since it is a violation of existing laws,” Vergeire said in Filipino.
Former Vice President Jejomar Binay, for his part, has faulted the government for pinning false hopes on essential workers struggling their way to get vaccinated for COVID-19 to return safely to their jobs.
Binay asked why the government already announced the start of vaccination of around 3.5 million workers belonging to the A4 priority group when the vaccine supply was not enough yet.
“The government played a cruel joke on workers who desperately need to find work, get back to work to feed their families, or be protected while working. It’s another government publicity stunt at the workers’ expense,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Binay suggested letting the private sector do their vaccination procurement and administration by themselves, without entering into a tripartite agreement with the government. INQ