A relative wails over the death of his loved one while being treated in the parking lot of Ospital ng Binan in Laguna province on August 14, 2021 as the hospital hit full bed capacity amid increasing COVID-19 cases. RICHARD A. REYES / INQUIRER
MANILA, Philippines — About 317 patients have succumbed to COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) said in their COVID-19 bulletin on Friday, pushing the country’s death toll to 31,198.
But aside from the new deaths recorded, DOH also revealed that 221 patients previously tagged as recovered have been reclassified as dead.
It is still unclear whether the 221 cases reclassified as deaths are already included in the 317 deaths recorded on Friday, which saw one of the highest number of daily COVID-related deaths since the start of the pandemic last year.
The 31,198 death toll represents 1.73 percent of the total confirmed cases in the country, which now stands at 1.807 million.
Earlier, the country broke again its record for highest single-day increase in cases with 17,231 new infections, pushing the active case count to 123,251.
According to the DOH COVID-19 bulletin, the current active case count represents 6.8 percent of the total confirmed cases.
In contrast to the high new infections, there were only 5,595 patients who recovered from the disease, for a total recovery count of 1.653 million.
DOH reminded the public to continue observing health protocols against the pandemic as they expect cases to continue rising.
“Sa mga susunod na araw ay maari pang tumaas ang ating mga kaso ng COVID-19. Ang pagsunod sa minimum public health standards, maiging paggsasagawa ng PDITR strategies, at pagpapabakuna ay nananatiling pinakamabisang depensa sa COVID-19,” DOH said.
“Mahalaga rin na tayo ay magisolate at makipagugnayan sa BHERTs kung tayo ay may sintomas ng COVID-19. Ang maagang konsultasyon at pagpapatest ay makatutulong upang maputol ang hawaan sa mga bahay, komunidad, at sa mga lugar na pinagtatrabahuhan,” it added.
While all laboratories were operational last August 18, two labs were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.
Also, based on the data from the last 14 days, the four laboratories that did not submit data accounted for 0.03 percent of all the samples tested, and 0.08 percent of all the positive cases.
The Philippines registered its highest-ever daily count of 17,231 new COVID-19 cases, propelling active infections beyond 120,000 and total confirmed cases past the 1.8 million mark.