Active COVID-19 cases hit 109,018 after Philippines logs 9,838 new infections 

MANILA, Philippines — (Updated 4:16 p.m.) The Philippines on Friday recorded 9,838 additional COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 702,856.

• Active cases: 109,018 or 15.5% of the total
• Recoveries: 663, pushing total to 580,689
• Deaths: 54, bringing total to 13,149

What's new today?

• Daily infections crossed the 9,000-mark for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, within the same week that the 8,000-mark was first breached.
   
• Active cases also pushed past the 100,000-mark. Some 109,018, people would be enough to fill the Philippine Arena — the world's largest indoor arena — twice over. The positivity rate currently stands at 17.3%.
   
• As COVID-19 beds in hospitals fill up, the Philippines is also facing a shortage of investigational drugs used to treat COVID-19 patients, according to health authorities. 
   
• Even though cases continue to spike, the coronavirus task force decided to allow religious gatherings in the NCR Plus bubble at 10% capacity from April 1 to 4. 
   
• The government is also allowing 24 higher education institutions to conduct limited face-to-face classes in the second semester of the academic year. 
   
• The 7,500 AstraZeneca doses recalled from the DOH Center for Health Development Bicol remain are still usable, the DOH and the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said. 
   
• Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told lawmakers that he will push for overseas Filipino workers to be moved up in the COVID-19 vaccination priority list by six spots.
   
• Only health workers are allowed to be included in the “quick substitution list” for vaccination, DOH clarified, after Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez said that actor Mark Anthony Fernandez was inoculated ahead of frontliners because he was supposedly part of the city’s substitution list. 

— with reports from Gaea Katreena Cabico and Xave Gregorio 

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