Philippines sees 7,733 new COVID-19 cases; recoveries breach 1 million

The Philippines’ tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 1,087,885 on Friday after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 7,733 new infections.

Total recoveries also hit 1,003,160 after 4,227 more patients recovered from the respiratory disease.

The death toll climbed to 18,099 with 108 new fatalities.

These figures brought the number of active cases to 66,626 —94.4% of which are mild, 2% are asymptomatic, 1.5% are severe, 1.1% are in critical condition, and 0.98% are moderate.

The DOH said all laboratories were operational and submitted data on time while 20 duplicates were removed from the total tally of infections and 64 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after validation.

Meanwhile, the government’s inter-agency COVID-19 task force has approved the DOH recommendation for incoming travelers to be tested on the seventh day from their date of arrival in the country in a bid to tighten border control. 

The Philippines has temporarily banned travelers from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka to block the entry of the B.1.617 coronavirus variant first detected in India. 

The DOH also said it was eyeing an expansion of the country’s whole genome sequencing capacity to detect more cases of coronavirus variants.—LDF, GMA News