Philippines’ COVID-19 tally now over 552,000 with 1,391 new cases

The number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines rose to 552,246 on Tuesday after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,391 new infections as 10 laboratories failed to submit data on time.

According to the DOH, total recoveries also climbed to 511,796 with 45 new cases while seven more fatalities brought the death toll to 11,524.

Five duplicate cases were removed from the total case count while two cases previously tagged as recovered were reclassified as deaths after the final validation.

There are also 28,926 remaining active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, of which 87.1 percent are mild, 6.7 percent are asymptomatic, 2.7 percent are severe, and 2.7 percent are in critical condition.

Data from the DOH also showed that 62 percent of the country’s intensive care unit beds are available while 79 percent of the mechanical ventilators are ready for use.

The DOH earlier announced that 40 of the 44 cases of the UK coronavirus variant have recovered from COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Genome Center stressed the importance of containing the transmissions of COVID-19 to avoid further mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the illness.—LDF, GMA News