COVID-19 death count tops 36,000 with 277 more fatalities

(FILE) Workers in protective suits, used due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, wait outside a crematorium facility as the cremation process takes some two hours in Manila on April 29, 2020. (Photo by Maria TAN / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s COVID-19 death toll reached 36,018 on Thursday following the deaths of 277 more patients, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Deaths comprise 1.56 percent of the 2.3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country, based on the latest bulletin of the DOH.

By date of reporting, the new deaths raised the total number of fatalities logged by the DOH in September to 2,571.

In a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday night, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that the daily average of actual deaths for the first two weeks of September was at 83.

COVID-19 deaths started increasing in August as the country saw a surge in cases due to the community spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant. The DOH said it reported 114 deaths per day in August, higher than the 97 average deaths in July and 106 in June.

The country now has 177,946 active cases of the disease, of which 1.4 percent are severe and 0.6 percent are critical that are at higher risk for death.

EDV