Philippines overtakes Indonesia as Southeast Asia’s COVID-19 hotspot

August 7 ------ The Philippines on Thursday overtook Indonesia as the hotspot of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Southeast Asia after the Department of Health (DOH) announced 3,561 new cases, raising the total to 119,460. Indonesia logged 1,882 new cases also on Thursday for a total of 118,753, according to The Jakarta Post. This marks the eighth consecutive day during which over 3,000 new cases were reported.

The five provinces with the highest number of new cases were Metro Manila with 2,041, Laguna with 222, Cebu with 221, Cavite with 100, and Rizal with 81. Among the new cases, 2,740 caught the virus from July 24 to August 6, 716 contracted COVID-19 between July 1 and 23, 63 fell ill in June, 11 got sick in May, 22 in April, and nine in March. Meanwhile, the total number of recoveries also rose to 66,837 after 569 more patients recovered from the respiratory disease, while the death toll climbed to 2,150 with 28 new fatalities.

Ten of the newly reported deaths occurred in August, 16 took place in July, while the remaining two died in June and May. There are also 50,473 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, still the highest across Southeast Asia, 90.9 percent of which are mild, 7.8 percent are asymptomatic, 0.8 percent are severe, and 0.5 percent are in critical condition.

The DOH said figures reported on Thursday were based on data submitted by 89out of the 98 operational laboratories. The department also removed 81 duplicate cases from the total tally of infections. As of August 5, the Philippines had 75 certified polymerase chain reaction facilities and 24 GeneXpert laboratories that had tested a total of 1,546,104 individuals. Fifty-five percent of intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients nationwide were also occupied while 31 percent of mechanical ventilators were in use. The DOH earlier said it was scouting some 10,000 additional health workers to substitute for those currently at the frontlines who previously called for a two-week “timeout” amid the continued surge in infections.

Source: gmanetwork.com