This photo taken on April 6, 2021 shows a man wearing personal protective equipment walking into a makeshift ward built for COVID-19 patients at a hospital in Manila. (Photo by JAM STA ROSA / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported 16,694 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the country’s tally of active cases of the disease to 123,935.
This is the second highest single-day increase, following the 17,231 cases confirmed on Friday.
According to DOH, there are 1,824,051 total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country, of which 6.8 percent remain active. Meanwhile, another 15,805 patients have recovered, taking the number of patients who have recuperated to 1,668,520. However, 398 more deaths brought the country’s fatality count due to COVID-19 complications to 31,596.
The DOH said 25.2 percent of 65,808 people who were tested were found positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus on Thursday.
All laboratories were operational on Thursday but four labs were not able to submit their data on time. The four non-reporting labs contribute 2.7 percent of samples tested and 4.2 percent of positive individuals on average in the last two weeks.
The DOH removed 443 duplicates, including 426 recoveries, from the total case count. Some 211 cases that were initially tagged as recoveries were also reclassified as deaths after final validation.
COVID-19 cases in the country are increasing again as health authorities detect more cases of the highly transmissible variants of the virus, especially the Delta variant that was first reported in India.