MANILA, Philippines (Update 1, 5:42 p.m.) — The number of confirmed coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) patients in the country reached 24,175 Thursday after the Department of Health reported another huge increase in new infections.
The DOH logged 443 new cases Wednesday—253 fresh cases and 190 late cases. The day before, the country saw 740 additional infections.
Fresh cases refer to patients who tested positive within the last three days, while late cases were patients who tested positive from at least four days earlier.
Of the newly-validated cases, 83 were detected in Metro Manila, 72 were from Central Visayas, while 288 were spread out across the archipelago.
Hundreds of new cases are still being detected in the country daily despite the nearly three-month implementation of quarantine measures.
Two hundred seventy more recoveries were registered, pushing the number of COVID-19 survivors to 5,165. This is the highest number of recoveries in a day.
But nine more people died due to the severe respiratory disease. This brought to 1,036 the country’s death toll.
President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to address the nation on Monday and provide new directives on community quarantine measures.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 415,277 people out of the more than 7.35 million infected worldwide.
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