Philippine COVID-19 tally tops 356,000; recoveries breach 310,000

The Philippines’ coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tally rose to 356,618 on Sunday after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,379 new infections as 14 laboratories failed to submit their data on time.

The areas with the highest number of newly reported cases were Quezon City with 172, Rizal with 147, Bulacan with 136, Caloocan with 117, and Cavite with 101.

Sixty-six percent or 1,580 of the latest infections contracted COVID-19 within the past 14 days.

Meanwhile, the total number of recoveries soared to 310,158 after 14,941 more patients recovered from the respiratory disease.

The DOH earlier said it would report time-based recoveries every Sunday as part of its “Oplan Recovery” initiative, where asymptomatic and mild cases are re-tagged as recovered after completing 14 days of quarantine without developing symptoms.

The death toll also climbed to 6,652 with 50 new fatalities.

“Moreover, 11 cases previously tagged as recovered were reclassified as deaths,” the DOH added.

The remaining 39,808 are active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, 82.8 percent of which are mild, 11.5 percent are asymptomatic, 1.9 percent are severe, and 3.7 percent are in critical condition.

Worldwide, COVID-19 has claimed 1,105,677 lives and infected more than 39.5 million.

The Philippines has the 20th highest number of infections across the globe. — DVM, GMA News