MANILA, Philippines (Update 1, 5:07 p.m.) — The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the Philippines reached 20,626 Friday as the fatality count approached the 1,000-mark, the Department of Health said.
The DOH logged 244 additional cases—168 fresh cases and 76 late cases. Seventy-five percent of the newly-validated cases were detected in Central Visayas, while 14% were from Metro Manila.
Fresh cases are those who had their test results released and validated in the last three days. Late cases, meanwhile, are those whose results were released to patients four days ago or more.
“Mababa na po ang bilang ng late cases na naitala sapagkat halos tapos na ang pag-vavalidate ng mga complete line list na galing sa ating mga laboratories,” Health Underscretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
(The number of late cases that we are reporting is decreasing because we are almost done with our validation of complete line lists submitted by laboratories.)
For over a week now, the Philippines has been seeing massive increase in the number of new cases. The department maintained that the surge in local infections was due to the hiring of more personnel and the shift to a fully-automated system that sped up the validation process.
The DOH also registered 82 new recoveries, pushing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 4,330.
But the number of coronavirus fatalities in the country grew to 987 after three new deaths were reported.
Some 357,252 people have been tested in the Philippines as of June 3. Vince Dizon, the country’s testing czar, said the government is planning to expand its coronavirus testing to include those who are asymptomatic.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed 389,620 people worldwide with the global caseload reaching 6.6 million.
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