For the first time in nearly five months, the Philippines’ single day tally of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases jumped again to 3,000.
On Friday, March 5, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 3,045 additional cases of COVID-19 nationwide, raising the total number to 587,704
The last time that the Philippines logged more than 3,000 cases in a day was on October 16, 2020 with 3,139 reported COVID-19 cases then.
The DOH said 40,074 are active cases or those who are still sick. This is 6.8 percent of the total case count. Of these cases, 89.7 percent have mild symptoms, 5.6 percent have no symptoms, two percent are in critical condition, 1.9 percent are in severe condition, and 0.77 percent are in moderate condition.
It was also noted that the death count increased to 12,423 after 19 more patients died because of the disease. Meanwhile, 178 more patients have recovered, bringing the recovery count to 535,207.
Adherence to health protocols is critically important at this time amid the increasing number of new cases and the detection of more cases of the South African and United Kingdom variants of coronavirus, said Dr. John Wong of Epimetrics Inc., an epidemiologist working with the government’s Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“We should also be concerned about this...As we collect more samples, we would be able to see more. The number of cases that we see now should not be seen as sort of the maximum number of people or patients who have the variant. There could be more than that,” Wong said in a media briefing on Friday, March 5.
“We should encourage the public to take precaution. Whether or not this is variant driven, the fact that we have increasing cases since February--- is enough to get people to do more...I'm sure all of us don't want to go back to the days of ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) or MECQ (modified enhanced community quarantine),” he added.
“Our economy is struggling. We don't want to hamper it more. Before hospitals are overwhelmed, they have to put in preventive measures so that we can prevent more cases and hospitalization,” he furthered.
It is important not to be complacent even if vaccines are now available in the country, said Wong.
“It will be a long time before it is our turn, at least for the general population (to be vaccinated). So the best thing to do is to continue wearing your face mask and face shield. They are as effective as vaccines. Adhering to the minimum public health standards would keep us safe until it is our turn in the vaccine line,” said Wong.