The Philippines continues to respond to the growing number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases as the Department of Health (DOH) logged 1,395 additional infections on Thursday.
The new cases pushed the country’s COVID-19 tally to 51,754, said Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire in a press briefing. Meanwhile, the number of active cases is at 37,627.
(PCOO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
In a related development, Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega said that the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Cebu City has produced a positive result in containing the virus in the area.
Vergeire said that 211 of the new cases were "late" or test results just recently validated by the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, while 1,184 were “fresh” or test results released to patients within the last three days.
The DOH said that 53 of the late cases were from Metro Manila, 47 from Central Visayas, 108 cases were from other regions, while three repatriates were found positive.
Of the fresh cases, 390 came from Metro Manila, 243 from Central Visayas, 484 were from other parts of the country, and the remaining 67 were repatriates.
The number of recoveries increased by 225 to 12,813. Meanwhile, the death toll remains at 1,314.
Situation in Cebu City
Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega noted the significant improvements in Cebu City after the government tightened its implementation of ECQ health and safety protocols.
“Bumaba na ang rates ng kanilang positives (cases) dito sa Cebu dahil sa ECQ; at saka meron na rin decreasing trend sa kanilang mortality rates. So effective ang ECQ dito sa Cebu right now ,” said Vega during the Malacañang press briefing.
Although they are observing positive outcomes, Vega said that he still could not say if the city will be downgraded to General Community Quarantine (GCQ) by July 16.
“It's too early to say...Iyan ay pag-uusapan sa IATF (Interagency Task Force) whether to downgrade Cebu City to GCQ,” he said.
The DOH COVID-19 tracker showed that Cebu City has 5,701 as of July 7.