Coronavirus cases in the Philippines breach 50,000 with biggest daily jump
MANILA, Philippines (Update 1, 9:46 p.m.) — Confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country passed the 50,000-level—a grim milestone—with the Department of Health reporting 2,539 new infections Wednesday.
Wednesday’s figure was the highest single day increase in the number of infections since a case was first detected in late January. This pushed the national tally to 50,359.
After hours-long delay, the DOH said 1,992 of the newly-added cases were detected within the last three days, while 617 were from its validation backlog.
Most of the fresh cases were from Metro Manila with 883 infections, followed by Central Visayas with 369 cases. The remaining 670 of these cases were from other regions in the country.
Meanwhile, 183 of the late cases were detected in the capital region, while 74 were found in Central Visayas. Other regions accounted for 360 of these cases.
DOH said 53 duplicates were removed from the total case count.
As of Wednesday, active cases in the Philippines stood at 36,457.
The country has been experiencing a renewed surge in COVID-19 infections after community quarantine measures were further loosened and more industries were allowed to reopen. The DOH earlier attributed the rise in virus cases to its increased testing capacity and “lack of implementation of minimum health standards.”
The department also reported that the number of people who were given a clean bill of health climbed by 202 to 12,588.
But five more patients succumbed to the severe respiratory illness, raising the death toll to 1,314. Two of the deaths occurred in July. Total recoveries accounted for around 25% of the nation’s confirmed cases.
Some 797,585 people have been so far tested in the country.
The Philippines has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, behind Indonesia which has declared over 66,000 cases.
Worldwide, COVID-19 has already infected 11.78 million people and has killed more than 543,000 people since it first emerged in Wuhan, China late last year.
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