Coronavirus infections in Philippines hit 164,474 with 3,314 new cases

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 4:49 p.m.) — The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Philippines soared past 164,000 Monday with over 3,214 new infections.

To date, 164,474 people have caught the coronavirus disease in the country. Of the figure, 49,043 are active cases or individuals who are still sick.

Of the newly-reported cases, 1,918 were from Metro Manila, 274 from Laguna, 219 from Cavite, 118 from Rizal and 105 from Bulacan.

These areas were placed under modified enhanced community quarantine until August 18.

The DOH also reported 237 new recoveries, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 112,759. The day before, the department logged 40,397 additional recoveries—around 98% of which were part of its time-based recovery scheme.

Under this scheme, mild and asymptomatic cases after undergoing 14 days of quarantine are tagged as recoveries based on the discharging criteria of the World Health Organization.

The country’s death toll, meanwhile, rose to 2,681 after 18 more people succumbed to the disease. The country’s case fatality rate stood at 1.63%, higher than the global case fatality rate of 3.49%.

The DOH said it had removed 93 duplicates from the total case count.

Some 1.921 million people have been tested for coronavirus in the country.

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to announce new quarantine classifications Monday night.

Mutated coronavirus strain

The Philippine Genome Center said a mutated coronavirus strain called G614 has been detected in the country. In a study published last month, international researchers found that a specific change in SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, is more infectious in cell culture.

“We note that all the samples tested were from Quezon City and may not represent the mutational landscape for the whole country,” PGC said in an August 13 bulletin.

Genomic researchers also stressed “there is still no definitive evidence” showing that carriers of the G614 variant are actually more transmissible than those with the original D614 genotype. The mutation also does not appear to “substantially affect clinical outcomes,” they added.

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also said “there is no solid evidence” showing that G614 strain is more transmissible.

Globally, the coronavirus case count reached 21.67 million, with over 775,000 deaths since the health crisis burst out of China earlier this year.

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