168 more fatalities bring PH’s COVID-19 death toll to 34,899

This file photo shows a worker in a protective suit, used due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, waits outside the crematorium facility as the cremation process takes some two hours in Manila on April 29, 2020. (Photo by Maria TAN / AFP FILE)

MANILA, Philippines — Another 168 patients have died of COVID-19, raising the country’s coronavirus death toll to 34,899, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

The deaths compose 1.6 percent of all the 2.17 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country since the pandemic started.

The DOH has so far reported a total of 1,448 deaths this month based on previous case bulletins. This represents an average of 144 deaths being added to the tally per day.

By the actual date of deaths, the health department logged 114 deaths per day in August, higher than the 97 average deaths in July and 106 in June. The number of deaths rose amid the renewed surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the community spread of the transmissible Delta variant.

The country now has 175,470 active COVID-19 cases, of which 1.3 percent are severe and 0.6 percent are critical that are at higher risk for death.

/MUF