COVID-19 cases in Philippines nearly 9,000 as death toll hits 600
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health on Saturday announced 156 new local cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), with the official infection count now at 8,928 from the previous tally of 8,772.
1,634 confirmed cases were seen this week overall on top of the 7,294 recorded cases as of last Saturday.
The number of active cases, however, is now 7,201 after the Health department announced 24 new deaths and 40 new survivors of the coronavirus.
This brought the local COVID-19 death toll to 603 and the recovery count to 1,124.
Over 3.17 million cases of COVID-19 including 224,172 deaths have been recorded globally by the World Health Organization in its latest situation report.
WHO said the organization had sounded the highest level of alert by declaring that the COVID-19 outbreak constituted a "public health emergency of international concern" on January 30, when there were no deaths and only 82 cases registered outside China.
"We didn't waste any time," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Friday's briefing. "The world had enough time to intervene."
His comments came after WHO's emergency committee met for the first time since making its declaration three months ago. — with report from Agence France-Presse
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