The Philippines logged its highest number of new COVID-19 cases and recoveries in a single day, the Department of Health (DOH) announced on Thursday evening.
The DOH reported 38,075 more survivors, bringing the total number of recoveries to 65,064. To note, the country recorded its previous record-high recoveries of 4,325 last July 13.
Similarly, the country's COVID-19 cases continue to spike with 3,954 infections added on its caseload. This topped the previous record of 2,539 cases that was reported last July 8.
The nationwide tally currently stands at 89,374. The number of active cases is now at 22,327, the DOH said.
The DOH previously said that the increase in the number of cases is due to the easing of community quarantine restrictions as the government aims to gradually revive the economy.
Another reason is the lack of implementation of the minimum health standards and the increasing testing capacity.
Meanwhile, the death toll also climbed to 1,983 as 23 new fatalities were reported.
‘Data reconciliation’
The agency attributed the sudden spike in the COVID-19 figures to its “enhanced data reconciliation efforts with local government units.”
“Early this month, the DOH created the COVID-19 Surveillance and Quick Action Unit which focuses on data collection, validation, and reconciliation of information available at the local and national level,” the DOH said in a statement.
“These massive data reconciliation efforts have resulted in faster and more accurate tagging of health statuses-particularly on deaths and recoveries. Data on recovery reconciliations will be reported every 15 days,” it added.
The DOH noted that the 37,166 additional recoveries reported on Thursday, July 30, was a result of their “Oplan Recovery, which is an initiative that the Department activated to monitor the statuses of confirmed COVID-19 cases.”
Meanwhile, the other 909 validated recoveries were from the submitted reports from the regional epidemiological surveillance units, the DOH said.
The DOH said that the classification of recoveries was also amended under the Department Memorandum No. 2020-0258.
“Following Department Memorandum No. 2020-0258, as endorsed by clinical practice guidelines and our technical advisory groups, patients with mild or no symptoms are tagged as recovered 14 days from the date of onset of symptoms or by date specimen collection,” the DOH said.
“This clinical recovery protocol is followed by the US CDC, European CDC, and India,” it added.
“Upon assessment of a licensed physician, the patient can be tagged as recovered after completion of 14 days isolation period,” it furthered.
Previously, the DOH required patients to have two negative test results before they can be tagged as recovered.