The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed another 3,379 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the Philippines on Friday, August 7.
The new cases pushed the nationwide tally to 122,754 cases with 53,734 active cases, the latest DOH case bulletin showed.
The DOH said that the National Capital Region recorded the highest number of new cases with 1,846, followed by Rizal province with 314, Laguna with 276, Cavite with 145, and Quezon with 66 new infections.
Meanwhile, the number of those who died increased to 2,168 after 24 more succumbed to COVID-19. The country’s recoveries rose by 96 to 66,852.
There were “85 duplicates that were removed from the total case count,” the DOH said.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, meanwhile, said that the public should be cautious in comparing the Philippines with other nations--- after the country surpassed Indonesia with the most number of cases among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“Opo, pwede tayong magkumpara at mag-benchmark when it comes to total numbers. Nakikita naman po talaga na mataas ang numero natin. Pero pag tayo ay nag a-analyze, we have to put it in context ,” said Vergeire in a press briefing.
Vergeire said that various components should be considered when comparing the COVID-19 data of different countries.
“We have to interpret it cautiously kasi magkakaiba nga po ang sistema at populasyon ,” she said.
To note, the number of cases in Indonesia is at 118,753 with 37,587 active cases as of Thursday, August 6.
“Isa po sa kadahilanan kung bakit mataas ang kaso na naitatala (natin) ay dahil nag expand po tayo ng kapasidad for testing ,” she added.
As of August 5, the country has conducted a total of 1,667,831 tests on 1,557,105 unique individuals. There are now also 100 laboratories in the Philippines that can conduct the COVID-19 test with an average daily testing capacity of 28,000.