2,067 new COVID-19 cases bring Philippines’ tally to over 580k

The Philippines’ coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tally rose to 580,442 on Tuesday after the Department of Health (DOH) announced 2,067 new infections as eight laboratories failed to submit reports on time.

This is the sixth straight day where more than 2,000 infections were reported.

The total number of recoveries also climbed to 534,463 after 144 more patients recovered from the respiratory disease.

The death toll increased to 12,369 with 47 new fatalities.

The DOH said six duplicates were removed from the total case count.

“Moreover, 30 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” it added.

There are also 33,610 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine.

Earlier in the day, the DOH reported that six COVID-19 cases, three of whom are Pasay residents, were found to have the South African variant.

Their samples were collected between January 27 and February 13, the DOH said.

Meanwhile, the DOH also reported 30 new UK variant cases, bringing total infections to 87.

Further, two more samples in Central Visayas were also found to have N501Y and E484K, two coronavirus mutations of concern.

The DOH urged the public to continue observing minimum health standards despite the official rollout of the vaccines on Monday.—LDF, GMA News