Zamboanga City’s COVID-19 cases climb to 723

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — The number of coronavirus disease 2019 cases in this city continued to rise as 35 new infections were recorded on Saturday, according to health authorities and the local task force on COVID-19.

The new infections brought the total number of cases to 723, including 348 active cases.

The task force on COVID-19 reported at least 27 new recoveries.

The Zamboanga regional health office said the city remained to have the highest number of cases in the region, which has a total of 892 confirmed cases as of Saturday.

Zamboanga City is followed by Isabela City with 65 cases; Zamboanga del Sur, 43; Zamboanga Sibugay, 31, and Zamboanga del Norte, 30, the DOH-Zamboanga said.

Isabela City in Basilan is administratively under the Zamboanga peninsula as it is not part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The regional health department reported that 461 of the total cases in the peninsula have recovered while 403 remained active.