Almost 3,000 new COVID-19 cases push Philippine total over 574,000

The Department of Health (DOH) reported a record-high 2,921 new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections on Saturday, bringing the nation’s tally to 574,247, as six laboratories failed to submit data on time.

This is the third consecutive day where more than 2,000 cases were reported.

According to the DOH, total recoveries also rose to 524,865 after 293 more patients recovered from the illness while 42 new fatalities brought the death toll to 12,289.

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

Of the 37,093 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, 89.2 percent were mild, 6.1 percent were asymptomatic, 2 percent were severe, and 2.1 percent were in critical condition.

Data from the DOH also showed that 61 percent of the country’s intensive care unit beds were available while 78 percent of mechanical ventilators were ready for use.

Malacañang earlier announced that the National Capital Region and nine other areas would be placed under a general community quarantine (GCQ) in March while the rest of the country would be placed under a modified GCQ.

The Palace previously said that the entire country would not be placed under the least stringent MGCQ before COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out.

On Sunday, the Philippines is expected to receive the 600,000 doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine that were donated by China.  — DVM, GMA News