The Philippines has now surpassed 224,000 cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) after almost seven months since its first case was discovered.
The latest data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed that 3,483 new infections were added to the tally on Tuesday, raising the cumulative total to 224,264, of which 62,655 are active cases.
The DOH said that the number of people who have died rose to 3,597 after 39 new fatalities were recorded. Meanwhile, 464 new patients were cleared from the disease. This brought the total reported recoveries to 158,012.
Of the 39 new deaths, the DOH said that 34 happened in August, two in July, one in June, and two in May.
The majority of new recorded infections were detected in the National Capital Region at 1,824. Laguna came in next with 223, Cavite with 184, Rizal with 161, and Batangas with 126.
The DOH said the new confirmed infections were reported based on the total tests done by 93 out of 110 COVID-19 licensed laboratories nationwide.
“There were 38 duplicates that were removed from the total case count. Of these, 11 recovered cases have been removed,” the DOH noted.
“Moreover, there were three cases that were previously reported as recovered but after final validation, they were deaths. These numbers undergo constant cleaning and validation,” it added.
To recall, the DOH announced the country’s first confirmed case last January 30, involving a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, China. The first local transmission of COVID-19 was confirmed last March 7. The Philippines is still in the 22nd spot among countries with the most number of cases, based on the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 dashboard.