PH logs 1,553 COVID-19 cases; active tally at 16,754

INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) registered 1,553 infections of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing to 16,754 the number of active cases.

The DOH also logged the country’s COVID-19 caseload at 4,011,026, with 3,929,981 recoveries and 64,291 deaths.

The new infections are slightly higher than the cases recorded on Sunday which was at 1,010, and is almost double the average daily infections recorded from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6 at 907.

The DOH tracker also showed that Metro Manila continues to lead the list of regions with the most number of COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks with 3,106 cases, followed by Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) with 1,942 infections, and the Western Visayas with 1,352.

As for areas with the most cases, Quezon City leads with 732 infections, followed by Cavite with 577 and Davao Del Sur with 668.

Meanwhile, on Nov. 6, only 9,048 tests were conducted which will reflect the daily tally for Wednesday. This was below the average number of tests conducted, based on past DOH data, which usually number more than 15,000. However, the lowest number of conducted tests is usually collated on a Sunday.

The health department recently detected in the country the XBB Omicron subvariant and the XBC variant of COVID-19, both of which are believed to be highly immune-evasive, with XBB tagged as the main driving force for the recent COVID-19 surge in Singapore, and XBC being a combination of the BA.2 sublineage of the Omicron and Delta variants.

The DOH also earlier warned that virus transmission is likely to increase especially after the observance of All Souls Day and during the Christmas holidays.

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