Philippines adds 3,462 new COVID-19 cases; total climbs past 115,000
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:08 p.m.) — The Philippines recorded another huge increase in coronavirus infections Wednesday, taking the country’s caseload past the 115,000-mark.
The Department of Health logged 3,462 new COVID-19 infections, with outbreak epicenter Metro Manila responsible for 70% of the additional cases. Laguna had 105 new cases, Rizal had 101, Cavite had 73 and Cebu province had 62.
To date, the novel coronavirus has sickened 115,980 people in the country.
The day before, the Philippines reported 6,352 additional COVID-19 infections—the biggest single-day increase in the country so far.
The number of cases has grown exponentially since the government eased movement restrictions in June, piling pressure on health workers who warned over the weekend the country was losing its battle against the health crisis.
This prompted the government to reimpose tough stay-at-home restrictions in Metro Manila and the province of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite.
The number of active cases or patients who are currently ill was at 47,587. Some 91% were mild cases, while 7% were asymptomatic.
The DOH also reported that recoveries increased to 66,270 after 222 more people were given clean bill of health. Total recoveries accounted for 57% of the country’s confirmed cases.
But nine more patients succumbed to COVID-19, raising the death toll to 2,123.
Seventy-five duplicates were removed from the total case count.
Some 1.527 million people have been tested so far for coronavirus in the country.
Global infections passed 18.54 million, with 700,714 deaths since the virus emerged in China late last year.
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
- Latest
- Trending
