Philippines logs 2,611 cases as COVID-19 tally rises past 316,000
MANILA, Philippines — The country’s cumulative count of coronavirus cases climbed to 316,678 Friday after the Department of Health reported 2,611 new infections.
Eighty-two percent of the newly-reported cases contracted COVID-19 in the last two weeks.
Metro Manila continues to be the top source of additional infections with 1,084. It was followed by Cavite (202), Iloilo (182), Bulacan (163) and Rizal (132).
The department also logged 416 recoveries, pushing the tally of COVID-19 survivors to 254,617.
However, the country’s case count rose to 5,616 after 56 more patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
The latest figures brought the number of active cases to 56,445 or nearly 18% of the country’s caseload.
‘Improved’ COVID-19 response
The Philippines entered the list of 20 countries with the most number of coronavirus infections, after surpassing Pakistan, which has 312,806 cases as of Thursday.
The Philippines also has the most COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia despite enforcing one of the world’s longest lockdowns.
But the DOH stressed that the assessment of how the country is faring in the fight against COVID-19 goes beyond the total case count as it pointed out that the country’s healthcare system has “tremendously improved.”
“So whatever would be this ranking across the globe, this would be because the totality of number of cases. But when we look at our active cases, recovery rate, case fatality rate and health system capacity, we see that we have improved and we see that we are keeping up with our COVID-19 response,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Only Lanao del Sur, including Marawi City, returned to stricter modified enhanced community quarantine. Outbreak epicenter Metro Manila, Batangas, Tacloban City, Bacolod City and Iligan City will be under general community quarantine until October 31.
Meanwhile, the rest of the country will be under modified GCQ.
Globally, the new coronavirus has infected more than 34.1 million individuals, with over 1.017 million deaths.
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