MANILA, Philippines (Updated, 4:24 p.m.) — A total of 217 cases of novel coronavirus infection have now been detected in the Philippines as of midday Thursday as the government continues to enforce increasingly heavy measures to combat the spread of the contagion.
The Department of Health on Thursday logged 15 additional COVID-19 cases. There is no new death, with the toll still standing at 17.
The agency also reported the recovery of 48-year-old Filipino male from Cavite City. The man, who had a travel history to Japan, was the country’s eighth recovery.
He was discharged from the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine after testing negative for the illness twice.
The DOH on Wednesday said there could be as many as 75,000 new coronavirus cases in the Philippines in two to three months if the spread of the virus is not contained.
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered more than half of the country’s population to stay home for the next month in an unprecedented bid to arrest the contagion.
The Philippines detected a fraction of the infections seen in China and Italy but there are concerns that the figure may be bigger due to the country’s very limited testing program. Since January 28, only 1,030 tests have been conducted.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has infected 207,860 people across the globe and killed more than 8,600 since the virus first emerged in central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.