1,901 new COVID-19 cases push Philippines’ total over 557,000

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday reported 1,901 new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections, bringing the nationwide tally to 557,058, as four laboratories failed to submit data on time.

According to the DOH, total recoveries also climbed to 512,789 after 537 more patients recovered from the illness.

Meanwhile, 157 new fatalities brought the death toll at 11,829.

At present, there are 32,440 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, of which 86% are mild, 8.5% are asymptomatic, 2.4% are severe, and 2.4% are in critical condition.

The Health Department said that six duplicate cases were removed from the total case count while 120 cases previously tagged as recovered were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Data from the DOH also showed that 65% of the country’s intensive care unit beds are available while 80% of the mechanical ventilators are ready for use.

On Thursday, the DOH Region 7 announced that the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) detected two coronavirus “mutations of concern” in samples from Cebu. All cases, however, have recovered from COVID-19.

According to the World Health Organization, however, both mutations are common in the South African variant.—AOL, GMA News