(FILE) The Swab Cab initiative of the Office of Vice President Leni Robredo returned to Imus, Cavite this weekend, July 10 to 11, 2021, offering free antigen testing in identified areas to help in local government efforts against COVID-19. Photo by Jay Ganzon / OVP
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) logged 7,342 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, excluding data from six testing laboratories, taking the active tally of coronavirus cases in the country to 63,171.
According to DOH, the country’s total confirmed COVID-19 cases is now at 1,619,824. Of this number, 1,528,422 are recoveries, including the 7,285 patients added to the recovery count.
Meanwhile, the health department also reported 90 more deaths, pushing the death toll to 28,231.
The DOH said 16.4 percent of the 41,257 people who were tested were found positive on Monday for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease.
Only one laboratory was not operational on Monday while six laboratories were not able to submit their data on time to the COVID-19 Document Repository System. These seven laboratories contribute 1.7 percent of samples tested and 2.4 percent of positive individuals on average based on data in the last 14 days.
According to DOH, 59 duplicates, including 52 recoveries, were removed from the total case count. Twenty-three cases earlier tagged as recoveries have been validated to be active cases and 51 cases that were tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths following a validation.
Dr. Alethea De Guzman, OIC-Director of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, earlier said the country saw a 15-percent increase in average daily new COVID-19 cases, from 6,303 cases from July 21 to 27 to 7,239 cases from July 28 to August 3. She said the impact of the highly contagious Delta variant is now being observed on a national scale.
Meanwhile, she said 1,596 average daily COVID-19 cases were recorded in Metro Manila from July 28 to August 3, 65-percent higher compared to only 967 average cases from July 21 to 27.