DOH reports new record-high 40,397 recoveries as PH’s COVID-19 cases top 160K

MANILA, Philippines — Over 40,000 more people have recovered from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as the country’s total caseload breached the 160,000 mark, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Sunday.

In its daily COVID-19 case bulletin, the DOH announced a new record-high single-day increase of 40,397 recoveries, bringing the total number of patients who defeated the virus to 112,586.

A total of 3,420 more people contracted the disease respiratory disease, pushing the total coronavirus cases nationwide to 161,253.

Meanwhile, 65 more have died. The country’s total COVID-19 death toll is now at 2,665.

Of the newly-reported infections, Metro Manila had the most number of new cases at 2,091, followed by Laguna with 263 cases, Cavite with 149, Batangas with 137 and Rizal with 106.

The sudden surge in recoveries is due to the DOH’s “Oplan Recovery” program where it tags patients as recovered after they complete 14-day isolations from the time they first start showing symptoms of COVID-19 or their samples are collected for testing.

The last time the DOH reported on its “Oplan Recovery” on July 30 where 38,075 more people were tagged as recovered.

However, the steep rise in recoveries sparked doubts and drew questions from the public on how DOH handles critical COVID-19 data.

But the Health Department insisted that the method is based on scientific evidence and at par with international standards.

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