Philippines reports 12,674 new COVID-19 infections as total cases reach 853K

The Philippines’ tally of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases reached 853,209 on Saturday after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 12,674 new infections with three laboratories failing to submit reports on time.

This brings the total number of active cases in the country to 190,245, the highest recorded this year.

Of this, 97.2% are mild, 1.7% are asymptomatic, 0.5% are severe, and 0.4% are in critical condition.

The DOH also reported 225 new fatalities since, bringing the country’s death toll to 14,744.

Meanwhile, 593 more patients have recovered from the respiratory disease, bringing the total to 648,220.

There are 19 duplicate cases that were removed from the total case count. Of these, 7 are recoveries and one is from fatality tally.

“Moreover, 49 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” the DOH said.

In the National Capital Region, 86% of the ICU beds are being utilized while 59% of the mechanical ventilators are in use.

The isolation beds are also 69% utilized.

The OCTA Research Group on Saturday said the enhanced community quarantine in the NCR Bubble has been effective as they report decrease of reproduction number to 1.23 in the past week from 1.88 before the implementation of strictest lockdown in the region.

The researchers recommended the extension of ECQ in the NCR plus but the government can impose modified ECQ instead if the country can’t afford the extension of the strictest lockdown classification due to “socioeconomic” reasons.

Malacañang earlier said it was “unlikely” that the ECQ, the strictest lockdown classification, would be extended past April 11.

The government’s inter-agency COVID-19 task force will meet this afternoon to discuss the quarantine restrictions over NCR Plus. -MDM, GMA News