The Department of Health (DOH) reported 5,484 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, July 8.

The nationwide case count rose to 1,455,585 since the pandemic hit the country last year.

Of the total, 49,036 or 3.4 percent were active cases---with 90.9 percent were having mild symptoms, 3.7 percent were asymptomatic, 1.5 percent were critically ill, 2.2 percent were in severe condition, and 1.62 percent have moderate symptoms.

The death toll jumped to 25,650 or 1.76 percent of the total case count. This after 191 new fatalities were reported by the DOH.

The total number of survivors has already reached 1,380,899 after 3,925 new recoveries were announced. The recovery tally represents 94.9 percent of the overall case count.

Meanwhile, National Task Force Against COVID-19 Special Adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa urged the government to further strengthen its testing and tracing efforts as concerns on the Delta variant continue to grow.

Related story: PH urged to intensify contact tracing, testing amid Delta variant concerns

Herbosa also reminded the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they are already eligible.

“Ang announcement ng ating mga vaccine manufacturers and all of them are saying na epektibo pa rin ang kanilang mga bakuna laban sa Delta variant (Based on the announcement of our vaccine manufacturers, all of them are saying that their vaccines are still effective against the Delta variant),” he said.

“Very important na makumpleto natin yung ating second dose dahil nakita nila na pag may two doses ka, mas may laban ka dito sa bagong Delta variant (It's very important that we complete our second dose because they observed that when you have two doses, you have better chances against this Delta variant),” he added.