COVID-19 cases in Philippines hit 527,272 with 1,658 new infections
MANILA, Philippines — The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the Philippines climbed to 527,272 Monday after 1,658 more people have contracted the respiratory disease.
Active cases or those who are still undergoing quarantine or treatment stood at 28,891 or 5.5% of the country’s total, data from the Department of Health showed.
The agency also reported 27 additional recoveries. To date, 487,574 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the Philippines.
But the illness claimed 58 more victims, bringing the death toll to 10,807.
The department no longer lists cities and provinces with high numbers of cases.
The DOH said it is reviewing the daily case bulletin to provide the country’s COVID-19 situation in a format “more understandable” to the public.
“The previous list of areas is based on total new cases reported that day, which is sometimes misinterpreted as total new or active cases,” the department said in a statement Friday.
What’s new today?
- Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the Philippines would receive 9.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from two pharmaceutical firms through the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility in the first half of 2021. COVAX would provide 117,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 jabs, while 5.5 million from Pfizer.
- The Department of Health said it has requested some P362 million to fund the country’s genome sequencing effort, which is critical in detecting the presence of new COVID-19 variants. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also said the shortage of reagents or the main ingredients used for chemical-based tests has also affected the country’s biosurveillance efforts.
- The OCTA Research Group said coronavirus vaccines must be first rolled out before quarantine measures in Metro Manila are further eased.
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