17,964 new COVID-19 cases logged; 175K active tally highest since April 18

The Philippines’ tally of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases rose to 2,179,770 on Friday with 17,964 new infections as four laboratories failed to submit data on time.

According to the Department of Health (DOH), this brought the country’s active cases to 175,470, the highest since April 18.

Of this, 87.8% are mild, 7.8% are asymptomatic, 1.3% are severe, and 0.6% are in critical condition.

The DOH also announced that total recoveries climbed to 1,969,401 after 9,067 more patients recovered from the illness.

Meanwhile, 168 new fatalities brought the death toll to 34,899.

A total of 85 duplicate cases were also removed from the total case count.

“Moreover, 79 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” the DOH said.

Based on reports on September 8, the Philippines was also able to test 76,562 individuals, of which 28.9% tested positive for the illness.

Malacañang earlier announced that the government will only implement two quarantine classifications during the pilot implementation of the alert level system for COVID-19 response in the National Capital Region.—LDF, GMA News