1,531 new infections recorded as Philippines' COVID-19 cases breach 40k

The Philippines' total number of COVID-19 cases reached 40, 336 after 1,531 more cases were recorded on Friday, according to the Department of Health.

Of these new cases of infection, 688 are considered "fresh" or newly validated while 843 are reported "late."

The DOH also announced 400 new recoveries, bringing to 11,073 the total number of COVID-19 survivors in the country.

Meanwhile, the death toll due to the virus increased to 1,280 with six new fatalities.

Of the fresh cases, 255 were recorded in Metro Manila, 138 in Central Visayas, and 271 in other areas. Twenty-four others were repatriates.

These newly validated cases were extracted from reports of only 57 out of the 73 operational laboratories, according to the DOH.

On the other hand, 158 of the late cases can be found in Metro Manila, 163 in Central Visayas, and 514 in other parts of the country. The cases of eight repatriates were also included in this set of late reported infections.

On Thursday, the number of fresh and late cases that were added to the cumulative total was only 294 due to shortened data gathering time brought about by a shift to a new data extraction system.

The DOH said its data extraction and analysis time is now back to 24 hours.

More than 681,000 individuals have undergone the COVID-19 test in the Philippines, as of June 30.

DOH data on July 1 showed that 481 or 36.32% of ICU beds and 3,805 or 40.78% of isolation beds are occupied nationwide, and 449 or 22.45% of mechanical ventilators in the country are in use.—LDF, GMA News