President Rodrigo Duterte (File photo by RICHARD MADELO/ Presidential Photographers Division)
MANILA, Philippines — “The number one threat to the Filipinos today — aside from this NPA [New People’s Army] and the terrorists — is really the COVID-19 fight,” President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday during his weekly “Talk to the People.”
“It is really a debilitating sickness, and a lot of Filipinos are getting infected. It spreads so fast. It’s what keeps us worried in the coming months. I hope it would peak soon,” the president added, speaking in a mix of English and Filipino.
On Monday, the Philippines logged 37,070 additional coronavirus infections, pushing its total case count to over 3.24 million, with over 290,000 sick with COVID-19.
While not the highest single-day tally since the start of the pandemic, Monday’s caseload is still one of the highest recorded by the Department of Health (DOH), with a 46-percent positivity rate of the 77,410 tests conducted.
READ: PH logs 37,070 more COVID-19 cases; over 33K others recover