MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:35 p.m.) — The country’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caseload climbed past 85,000 Wednesday after 1,874 new infections were added to the national tally.
To date, the novel coronavirus has infected 85,486 people in the Philippines since a case was first reported in late January. Of the total confirmed infections, 56,528 were active cases or patients who are currently ill.
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Nine out of 10 active cases are mild, the Department of Health said.
The University of the Philippines OCTA Research Group earlier projected that the Philippines could reach 85,000 COVID-19 cases by end-July.
The country has the second highest number of coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia behind Indonesia.
Metro Manila was the source of around 39% of the newly-announced cases. It was followed by Cebu province with 325 cases, Laguna with 130, Iloilo with 67 and Rizal with 63.
The number of COVID-19 survivors also increased by 388 to 26,996. Total recoveries accounted for around 32% of the nation’s confirmed cases.
But 16 more people died from COVID-19, raising the death toll to 1,962.
The country has so far tested more than 1.31 million people. The government is aiming to do 1.5 million tests by end of July, which is two days from now.
The DOH said Wednesday that the occupancy for coronavirus and non-coronavirus is now at “warning zone” nationwide as coronavirus cases continue to pile up. The situation is worse in the capital region where intensive care, isolation and ward beds are in the higher “danger zone.”
The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 659,000 people worldwide since it emerged in China late last year, with nearly 16.66 million infected.
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