Philippines reports 128 additional COVID-19 cases, 7 new deaths
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:14 p.m.) — The Philippines on Monday reported 128 new coronavirus cases and seven additional deaths.
This raised the total number of known infections in the country to 1,546, while the death toll reached 78.
The Department on Health on Sunday reported the country’s largest daily increase in infections with 343 cases.
Recent big jumps in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines were attributed to the arrival of donated test kits and the opening of new laboratories processing samples across the archipelago.
Meanwhile, the country’s death toll reached 78. The following are the latest COVID-19 fatalities in the country:
Patient 149, 72nd fatality
• 61-year-old Filipino female from Makati City with no travel and exposure history
• Died on March 27 due to acute respiratory failure secondary to community-acquired pneumonia secondary to COVID-19
Patient 587, 73rd fatality
• 79-year-old Filipino male from Muntinlupa City with no travel history
• Died on March 29 due to acute respiratory failure secondary to pneumonia COVID-19
Patient 647, 74th fatality
• 43-year-old Filipino male from Parañaque City with no travel and exposure history
• Died on March 27 due to acute respiratory failure secondary to pneumonia COVID-19, myocardial dysfunction
Patient 1488, 75th fatality
• 60-year-old male from Muntinlupa City whose nationality is still for validation
• He has unknown travel and exposure history
• Passed away on March 26 due to acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock, COVID-19
Patient 1447 – 76th fatality
• 45-year-old Filipino male from Davao City with unknown travel and exposure history
• Passed away on March 23 but was only confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 29
• Died due to cardiopulmonary arrest, acute respiratory distress syndrome secondary to community-acquired pneumonia high risk, hypoxia
Patient 1446, 77th fatality
• 59-year-old Filipino male from Davao City with no travel history
• Passed away on March 23 but was only confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 29
• Died due to acute respiratory distress syndrome secondary to community-acquired pneumonia high risk, hypoxia
Patient 1489, 78th fatality
• 74-year-old Filipino male from Quezon City with unknown travel and exposure history
• Passed away on March 21 but was only confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 27
• Died due to acute respiratory distress syndrome secondary to pneumonia
No new recoveries were reported on Monday. The total number of recovered patients stood at 42.
There are additional 920 patients under investigation and 6,321 persons under monitoring.
Just a little over 3,300 people have been tested since health authorities first detected a COVID-19 infection in late January.
In virus-hit countries like South Korea and Singapore, widespread testing is crucial in their fight against the spread of the new coronavirus as it allows authorities to isolate and treat infected people.
The country’s Food and Drug Administration approved on Monday the use of five rapid test kits but stressed that a confirmatory polymerase chain reaction-based test is still required. There are 17 PCR-test kits approved by FDA for commercial use.
The main island of Luzon entered its third week of enhanced community quarantined aimed to arrest the spread of the contagion.
More than 721,000 people across 177 countries and region have now contracted the new coronavirus. The global death toll stands at nearly 34,000.
Related video:
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
- Latest
- Trending
