Philippines’ COVID-19 cases top 200,000 with 5,277 new infections

August 27 ------ The number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines breached the 200,000 mark on Wednesday after the Department of Health (DOH) announced 5,277 new infections, bringing the total to 202,361. The bulk of the newly reported cases still came from Metro Manila at 3,157, followed by Laguna with 403, Negros Occidental with 304, Rizal with 237, and Cavite with 228. Eighty-two percent or 4,350 of the latest infections caught COVID-19 in the past 14 days. Meanwhile, the total number of recoveries rose to 133,460 after 1,131 more patients recovered from the respiratory illness.

The death toll also climbed to 3,137 with 99 new fatalities, 77 of whom died in August, 18 in July, three in June, and one in May. The remaining 65,764 are active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, 91.6 percent of which are mild, 6.3 percent are asymptomatic, 0.9 percent are severe, and 1.3 percent are in critical condition. The DOH said figures reported on Wednesday were based on data submitted by 95 out of the 109 operational laboratories. It also removed 80 duplicate cases from the total tally of infections.

As of August 25, 52 percent of COVID-19 intensive care unit beds nationwide were occupied while 28 percent of mechanical ventilators were in use. Experts from the University of the Philippines earlier projected that infections will spike to 250,000 by the end of August after the government loosened quarantine restrictions in a bid to restart the economy. On Monday, they said that new COVID-19 cases were on a downward trend but warned that it could still be reversed.

Source: gmanetwork.com