40,000 new COVID-19 cases ‘definitely possible’ in next few days — OCTA

quezon city lockdown

SWAB AND PRAY A section of Ina ng Lupang Pangako Parish church in Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, serves as a COVID-19 antigen testing center on Wednesday through the “Swab Cab” initiative of the Office of the Vice President. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — It is “definitely possible” that daily new COVID-19 cases would reach the 40,000 mark in the next few days, a fellow from independent research group OCTA said Friday.

OCTA fellow Guido David made the remark after the Philippines tallied 37,207 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest number of new infections in a single day since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Thirty-seven, two hundred seven 37,207 new cases today, within error of our blind projected range (35,000 to 37,000). This is obviously another new high in cases, and [40,000] is definitely possible within the next few days,” David said in a tweet.

According to the Department of Health’s (DOH) bulletin, with the new cases, the total number of infections in the country has reached 3,129,512 — of which 265,509 are active.

The health department also recorded 9,027 new recoveries and 81 new deaths. This brought the recovery count and death toll to 2,811,188 and 52,815, respectively.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier reported that the Philippines is now at “critical risk” for COVID-19 transmission.

EDV
Read more...