Highest since September: 3,749 new COVID-19 infections push PH’s active cases to 47,769

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Thursday 3,749 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of active coronavirus cases in the country to 47,769.

This is the highest number of additional COVID-19 cases that is over the 3,000-mark so far this year. The DOH again started reporting over 3,000 new COVID-19 cases per day last March 5. It reported over 2,000 cases on Tuesday and Wednesday.

According to DOH, there were also 406 new recoveries, pushing the number of patients who have recovered from the disease to 546,671.

Meanwhile, there were also 63 additional patients who have died. The COVID-19 death toll is now 12,608.

The total coronavirus cases in the country, which include active cases, recoveries, and deaths, is now at 607,048.

The DOH said active cases of COVID-19 compose 7.9 percent of the tally, while recoveries and deaths represent 90.1 percent and 2.08 percent of the count.

Almost 96 percent of the active cases are either mild or asymptomatic.

According to DOH, nine duplicate entries, including four recoveries, were removed from the case count, while 24 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Four laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on Wednesday.

The DOH earlier acknowledged that there is a significant surge in the number of coronavirus cases, but claimed that this is “not solely” because of the presence of the new variants.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the “underlying cause” of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases can also be attributed to the public’s failure to follow the minimum public health standards (MPHS).

EDV