Philippines’ COVID-19 cases exceed 300k with 2,747 new infections, 88 new deaths
The number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines has breached the 300,000-mark on Saturday after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,747 new infections, marking the fifth consecutive day where less than 3,000 cases were reported.
The nationwide total now stands at 301,256 cases.
Most of the new cases still came from the National Capital Region (NCR) with 1,115. This is followed by Negros Occidental with 196, Cavite with 153, Laguna with 112, and Cebu with 107.
Ninety percent or 2,471 of the newly reported cases acquired the virus in the past 14 days. A total of 852 cases were also removed from the total case count.
The DOH also announced that 787 more patients have recovered from the illness, bringing the total number of recoveries to 232,906.
Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 5,284 with 88 new fatalities. 62 of the new deaths occurred in September, 13 in August, eight in July, four in June, and one in April.
Of the remaining 63,066 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, 87.3 percent are mild, 8.8 percent are asymptomatic, 1.2 percent are severe, and 2.7 percent are in critical condition.
At present, the country has 133 licensed laboratories that have tested a total of 3,337,853 million individuals while 48 percent of the country’s intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients are occupied and 24 percent of mechanical ventilators are in use.
Meanwhile, experts from the University of the Philippines warned against the easing of the general community quarantine in NCR, saying that this may lead to a COVID-19 surge in Christmas. -MDM, GMA News