1,888 new COVID-19 cases bring Philippine tally to 561,169

The Philippines’ coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tally rose to 561,169 on Sunday after the Department of Health announced 1,888 new infections as two laboratories failed to submit reports on time.

The total number of recoveries also climbed to 522,843 after 9,737 more patients recovered from the respiratory illness.

The death toll increased to 12,088 with 20 new fatalities.

The DOH said seven duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, two were recoveries.

Moreover, 12 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

There were also 26,238 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine.

Data from the DOH also showed that 62% of the country’s intensive care unit beds were available, while 79% of mechanical ventilators were ready for use.

Earlier in the day, the DOH, University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center, and the UP-National Institutes of Health confirmed that 18 additional UK COVID-19 variant cases had been detected.

In a statement, the DOH said the new cases brought the total UK variant cases in the country to 62.

The 18 cases were found in the 7th batch of 757 samples sequenced by the UP-PGC on February 18. — DVM, GMA News