‘Relatively low’ 9,671 new COVID-19 cases due to ‘low lab output’ — DOH

(FILE) Health workers assist residents of Baesa, Quezon City to undergo swabbing at the mobile testing unit parked along Mendez Street on Wednesday, July 1. The mobile unit goes around the communities to test residents for the coronavirus.-INQUIRER/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday recorded 9,671 new COVID-19 cases, to bring the country’s total caseload to 1,658,916.

Of the total caseload, 77,516 or 4.7 percent are tagged as “active cases” but most of them either have mild or no symptoms at 96.1 percent.

“Daily case counts are affected by the output from the laboratories nationwide,” the DOH said in a statement. “The relatively low case count today (Sunday) is due to lower laboratory output last Friday.”

In comparison, there were 11,021 reported cases on Saturday, which is the highest daily count since April 17.

The total number of recoveries is now at 1,552,278 or 93.6 percent of all cases after 8,079 recoveries were recorded.

There are also 287 new reported deaths to bring the country’s death toll to 29,122 or 1.76 percent of all cases.

“Moreover, 3 cases previously tagged as recoveries have been validated to be active cases and 149 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” the DOH noted.

The latest data from the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker reported that the Philippines is only behind Indonesia in terms of  COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia with 3,639,616 cases.

As of posting, the COVID-19 global case count is now at 202.2 million including 4.28 million deaths, according to the tracker.

/MUF