MANILA — The Department of Health registered a huge number of 2,498 new cases on Thursday, 16 July 2020, bringing the Philippines’ overall tally to 61,266 of the killer coronavirus disease.
Out of the newly-announced cases, 1,246 were classified as “fresh” from three (3) days ago while 1,252 were added as “late” cases from results released four days or more in the department’s backlog.
The Philippines has been experiencing a surge in coronavirus infections following the further easing of quarantine measures aside from additional DOH-accredited testing centers that made results faster to process nowadays.
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte announced late Wednesday Cebu City already transitioned from the strictest enhanced community quarantine to modified ECQ.
The National Capital Region, the epicenter of COVID-19 cases, remains under general community quarantine until end of July.
Aside from the new cases, the DOH also reported 467 additional recoveries, pushing the total number of COVID-19 survivors in the country to 21,440.
On the flipside of it, however, the fatality count rose to 1,643 with the addition of 29 deaths Thursday.
Active cases in the country of the coronavirus only stood at 38,183, this, after deducting the number of recoveries and fatalities from the overall list.
DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said late Wednesday the country has “successfully flattened the curve since April,” citing longer case and mortality doubling time.
But only hours after his announcement, the health chief posted on Twitter a clarification saying the country “bent” the curve in April after the implementation of ECQ in March.
“But we are seeing an increase in cases due to the expanded testing capacity and community transmission as we allow movement of people,” Duque said.
Worldwide, the novel coronavirus pandemic has already killed more than 584,000 people out of at least 13.55 million infected individuals. (ia/SPH)
