MANILA, Philippines (Updated 8:17 p.m.) — The total number of confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines rose to 57,006 Monday after 836 new infections were added to the country’s caseload.
Of the newly-reported infections, 749 were detected within the last three days, while 87 were from the department’s validation backlog.
The country has been seeing a spike in coronavirus cases following the easing of containment measures nationwide save for Cebu City, which will remain under enhanced community quarantine at least until July 15.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the average number of daily new COVID-19 cases in July is 1,571 based on reporting date.
If based on the onset of illness, the daily average is 766 cases.
“We are experiencing an increase in the number of positive cases due to increase in testing and identified community transmission,” Vergeire said.
St. Luke’s Medical Center and Makati Medical Center joined the list of hospitals that have reported that all of their beds dedicated to coronavirus patients were occupied.
Record-high recoveries
The DOH also reported 4,325 additional recoveries—the most reported in a single day so far in the country. This raised the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 20,371.
Total recoveries accounted for around 36% of the country’s confirmed cases.
But 65 more people died from the severe respiratory illness, pushing the nation’s fatality count to 1,599.
Of the newly-reported deaths, 54 happened in June while only nine occurred in July. Ninety-one percent of these deaths were recorded in Central Visayas, while 6% were from the capital region.
The DOH said the number of new recoveries and deaths is expected to increase in the coming days due to “data reconciliation efforts” with local government units.The total number of active cases stood at 35,036 as of Monday.
Eighty-nine duplicates were removed from the total case count, it also said.
To date, the number of active cases in the Philippines stood at 35,036.
The country has so far tested 926,252 individuals for coronavirus. Currently, there are 85 testing laboratories nationwide.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 568,000 since the outbreak emerged in China last December. Over 12.86 million cases of COVID-19 have been registered.