Philippines sees 6,414 new COVID-19 cases

MANILA, Philippines — (Updated 4:13 p.m.) The Philippines on Wednesday logged 6,414 new coronavirus cases, pushing its overall count to 819,164.

Health authorities said the relatively lower number of additional infections is due to the low number of samples received by laboratories on April 4. 

Active cases also saw a 6,139 increase from yesterday's 152,562. The Department of Health, however, has yet to say if the significant increase in deaths are still due to backlogs.

• Active cases: 158,701 or 19.4% of the total


• Recoveries: 163, bringing the number to 646,404


• Deaths: 242, or now 14,059 in total

What's new today?

• A vaccine experts panel in the country recommended the use of China's Sinovac to senior citizens, despite the Food and Drug Administration earlier advising against it. 


• The Department of Health warned that persons distributing the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment could be violating the law.


• The chief of police in General Trias in Cavite has been relieved. It came after the death of a supposed curfew violator who was told to do 300 rounds of pumping exercise.


• Still on this topic: Rights watchdog Amnesty International said the Duterte administration's heavy-handed approach to containing the virus resulted in many human rights violations.

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