COVID-19 infections in the Philippines breach 363,000, deaths now at 6,783
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health confirmed 1,664 mores cases of novel coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the national caseload to 363,888.
Of these cases, 44,772 are active. Recovered patients are at 312,333 after 843 more recoveries were reported by the health department.
Meanwhile 38 new deaths were logged by the DOH, bringing the country's total death toll to 6,783
Earlier this month, the OCTA Research group said the number of new COVID-19 cases were declining nationwide but warned against the premature easing of community quarantine restrictions, especially in the country's capital region.
In line with this recommendation, Metro Manila mayors this week pushed for the extension of a general community quarantine until the end of the year.
However, the government continues to amend GCQ guidelines — loosening several restrictions on both outbound and domestic travel, backing the shortening of curfew hours, and, most recently, allowing hotels to operate at full capacity.
This week, Indonesia overtook the Philippines and became the country hardest-hit by the coronavirus in Southeast Asia — both countries make up 90% of the confirmed cases in the region.
Worldwide, over 41 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported along with more than 1 million deaths, latest data from Johns Hopkins University shows.
The same database places the Philippines' caseload as the 20th largest in the world while the number of deaths in the country are the 25th most globally.
DOH has logged 4.19 million individuals tested as of October 20 — about 3.7% of the country's population while the Philippines' positivity rate is 9.8%.
According to Statista, a business data platform, among the 31 countries most impacted by coronavirus, the Philippines is 27th in the number of tests conducted — having conducted only data 39,671 tests per million of its population.
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