PH’s COVID-19 death toll passes 34,000-mark with 189 new deaths

UNPRECEDENTED Workers are finding themselves busier than ever at New Life Crematorium in Biñan City in Laguna, where families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 have to wait for at least two days to secure a slot. —RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s COVID-19 death toll now stands at 34,062 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 189 new deaths on Saturday.

The total number of deaths accounts for 1.65 percent of all cases.

The DOH also reported 20,741 COVID-19 cases to bring the country’s caseload to 2,061,084.

This is the second-highest daily infection count since the pandemic began. The Philippines logged 22,366 cases last August 30.

Of the total number of cases, 157,646 or 7.6 percent are tagged as “active cases,” but most of them only having mild or no symptoms at 96.6 percent.

The total number of recoveries meanwhile is now at 1,869,376 or 90.7 percent of all cases, after 21,962 recoveries were reported.

The DOH said a total of “225 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 206 are recoveries”

“Moreover, 81 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” the Health Department noted.

The latest data from the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker reported that the Philippines is only behind Indonesia in terms of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia with 4,116,890 cases.

Indonesia also leads the tally when it comes to the death toll in the region, as it posted 134,930 deaths.

As of posting, the COVID-19 global case count is now at 219.8 million including 4.5 million deaths, according to the tracker.

/MUF