Philippines logs 6,845 new COVID-19 cases, highest since June 26

The number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines rose to 1,537,097 on Friday with 6,845 new infections, the highest since June 26, as two laboratories failed to submit data on time.

According to the Department of Health (DOH), this brought the country’s active cases to 55,069.

Of this, 93.4% are mild, 1.3% are asymptomatic, 2.3% are severe, and 1.4% are in critical condition.

The DOH also announced that total recoveries climbed to 1,455,137 after 2,330 more patients recovered from the illness.

Meanwhile, the death toll remained at 26,891 with no new fatalities due to issues with the COVIDKaya system.

“Due to technical issues encountered in COVIDKaya and the manual solution implemented as a contingency measure, cases reported today may not have up-to-date data entries in certain fields,” the DOH said.

“This is currently being investigated with the Department of Information and Communications Technology and a resolution is expected in the next few days,” the DOH added.

Eleven duplicate cases were also removed from the total case count.

Data from the DOH showed that 52% of the intensive care unit beds nationwide are in use while 36% of the mechanical ventilators are occupied.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), 42% of the ICU beds are being utilized by patients while 32% of the mechanical ventilators are in use.

Malacañang earlier announced that NCR and other areas will be placed under general community quarantine "with heightened restrictions" from July 23 to 31.

This was after the DOH confirmed the local transmission of the highly contagious Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus.

Meanwhile, the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases has decided to prohibit children from going outdoors once again due to the threat of the variant.—LDF, GMA News