COVID-19 cases in Philippines climb past 83,000
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:25 p.m.) — The number of coronavirus infections in the Philippines surged past 83,000 with nearly 2,000 deaths, the Department of Health said Tuesday.
The department reported 1,678 additional cases, bringing the national total to 83,673. Metro Manila was the source of 41% or 698 of the newly-reported infections.
It was followed by Laguna with 218 cases, Cebu with 100, Cavite with 87 and Davao del Sur with 33.
The number of active cases—or patients who have yet to recover—reached 55,109.
The University of the Philippines OCTA Research Group earlier projected that country will have 85,000 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases by end-July.
The DOH also logged 173 additional recoveries. This pushed to 26,617 the number of COVID-19 survivors in the country.
Total recoveries only accounted for 32% of the country’s confirmed cases.
But four more coronavirus-related deaths were recorded, raising the fatality count to 1,947.
The DOH said it had removed 45 cases from the total case count.
Some 1.26 million individuals have been so far tested in the country. With the government aiming to do 1.5 million tests, it needs to conduct 26,396 tests per day.
In his fifth State of the Nation Address Tuesday, Duterte admitted the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis had been “far from perfect” as the country posted second highest number of infections in Southeast Asia. He urged the public to “work together and do even more” to win the war against COVID-19.
The president was expected to use his annual speech to lay out comprehensive details of a much-awaited pandemic recovery plan but failed. A clear plan to address the continued rise of COVID-19 cases was also missing in his penultimate address before he steps down in two years.
The pandemic has killed more than 652,000 people worldwide since it emerged in China late last year, with nearly 16.4 million infected.
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