Coronavirus cases in the Philippines top 23,000, deaths at 1,027

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:55 p.m.) — The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has already sickened over 23,000 people in the Philippines more than four months after the Department of Health first detected an infection in the country.

The DOH registered 740 new COVID-19 infections Wednesday, pushing the national caseload to 23,732. Wednesday's figure was the highest since June 3 when the country had 751 additional cases. 

Of the newly-validated cases, 452 were patients who tested positive within the last three days. Twenty percent were detected in Metro Manila, 18% were from Central Visayas, while 61% were spread out across the archipelago. 

There were 288 late cases, 34% of which were from the capital region. Other regions accounted for 49%, while repatriates accounted for 15%

Hundreds of new cases are still being detected daily in the country despite the nearly three-month implementation of quarantine measures.

The department also logged 159 additional COVID-19 survivors—the highest number of COVID-19 recoveries in a day since the outbreak began in the Philippines. This raised the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 4,895.  

But 10 more people succumbed to the severe respiratory illness. This brought to 10,027 the country’s death toll.

Currently, there are 41 licensed polymerase chain reaction laboratories and 14 GeneXpert laboratories in the country. A total of 416,201 individuals have been tested as of Monday.

Last week, the government began relaxing restrictions on movement in areas at high risk of virus transmission including Metro Manila—the epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak.

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to address the nation on Monday and provide new directives on community quarantine measure when he meets with the government’s task force on pandemic response.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 408,954 people out of the more than 7.2 million infected worldwide.

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