PH Covid-19 cases now 119,460; recoveries rise to 66,837

The DOH said the additional cases reported were based on the total Covid-19 tests done by 89 out of 98 operational laboratories. (PCI photo)

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported 3,561 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections, raising the overall tally to 119,460.

The DOH said the additional cases reported were based on the total Covid-19 tests done by 89 out of 98 operational laboratories.

Majority of the newly announced cases are from the National Capital Region (NCR) with 2,041 cases, Laguna with 222 cases, Cebu with 221 cases, and Rizal with 81 cases.

It also reported 569 new recoveries and 28 deaths. These figures increased the number of recoveries to 66,837 and the number of deaths to 2,150.

“Of the 3,561 reported cases today, 2,740 or 77 percent occurred within the recent 14 days (July 24-August 6, 2020) and the top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were from NCR with 1,480 or 54 percent, Region 4A with 435 or 16 percent and Region 7 with 218 or 8 percent. Of the 28 deaths, 10 or 36 percent were in August, 16 or 57 percent were in July, one or 4 percent were in June and one or 4 percent were in May and the deaths were from NCR which is 11 or 39 percent, Region 7 which is nine or 32 percent, Region 11 which is 2 or 7 percent, Region 9 which is 2 or 7 percent, Region 4A which is one or 4 percent, Region 6 which is one or 4 percent, Region 10 which is one or 4 percent, and one case or 4 percent had an unspecified region,” the DOH said.

It added that 81 duplicates were removed from the total case count and of these, two recovered cases have been removed and one case that was previously reported to have died has been validated to have recovered and was included in the count of new recoveries.

The health department also noted that the country has 50,473 active cases — around 90.9 percent are mild, 7.8 percent are asymptomatic, 0.8 percent are severe, and 0.5 percent are critical patients.

As of Wednesday, the 75 licensed RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) laboratories and 24 licensed GeneXpert laboratories have already conducted a total of 1,467,723 tests nationwide.

The DOH said it has 17,300 total bed capacity dedicated for Covid-19 patients. Occupied are about 55 percent of 1,500 intensive care unit beds; 51 percent of 11,500 isolation beds; and 53 percent of 4,300 ward beds.

There are 2,100 ventilators for Covid-19 patients with about 31 percent in use.