The Philippines has confirmed another 9,671 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases on Sunday, August 8.
Active cases climbed to 77,516---representing 4.7 percent of the country's overall tally of infections which stood at 1,658,916.
Ninety-three percent of the currently ill-patients were experiencing mild symptoms, 2.8 percent were asymptomatic, one percent were critical, 1.7 percent were severe, and 1.20 percent were in moderate condition.
The death toll climbed to 29,122 after 287 more patients died from the viral illness, the DOH said.
Recovery count, meanwhile, grew to 1,552,278 with 8,079 new survivors.
The country’s new COVID-19 cases could hit up to 15,000 in a single day, said infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante in a radio interview on Sunday.
“Posible yan. From 8,000 pumalo agad ng 11,000, so baka mas mataas pa diyan (That is possible. From 8,000, it immediately hit 11,000, so maybe even higher than that),” he said.
“Tataas pa ito dahil nag start palang tayo ng lockdown. So pag start palang ng lockdown, it will take around seven to 10 days bago makikita natin yung epekto ng lockdown (It will still increase because we just started the lockdown. It will take around seven to 10 days before we can see the effect of the lockdown),” he added.
To note, the country logged 11,021 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, August 7.
Metro Manila, Laguna, Iloilo City, and Cagayan de Oro are currently under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
“Hopefully with the ECQ maagapan na hindi magtuloy-tuloy yung pagdami ng mga kaso. Ayun yung palagi namin dinadasal (Hopefully with the ECQ, the number of cases will not continue to increase. That is what we always pray for),” said Solante.
Solante urged the public to stay at home and only go out if necessary as the Delta coronavirus variant is highly transmissible.
“Lumabas ka lang kung talagang importante at kailangan mo dahil napakataas ng hawahan ng bagong variant na ito (Only go out if it's really important because the transmissibility of this new variant is very high),” he said.
He also urged the public to strictly adhere to the health protocols even if they are vaccinated or not.
“Ang kadalasang nabakunahan, ang akala nila 100 percent protected na sila. But, alalahanin natin na mababa pa ang vaccination rate natin (Oftentimes, vaccinated people think that they are already 100 percent protected. But, let's remember that our vaccination rate is still low),” said Solante.
“So, mas marami ka pang ma-encounter na walang bakuna na pwedeng may infection, at pwede ka pa rin madapuan (So, you will encounter more unvaccinated people who might have the virus, and you can still get infected),” he added.