PH records 11K additional COVID-19 cases

The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed 11,085 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases on Wednesday, Aug. 18.

The country's total COVID-19 cases increased to 1,776,495, of which 105,151 are active or those who are still battling the viral disease.

Of the active infections, 96 percent have mild symptoms, one percent are asymptomatic, 0.7 percent are critical, 1.3 percent are severe, and 0.91 percent are in moderate condition.

The DOH said that “265 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 259 are recoveries.”

Meanwhile, there were 161 new deaths, raising the death toll to 30,623 or 1.72 percent of the total case count.

Also, 11,628 more patients were able to recover. These pushed the recovery tally to 1,640,721 or 92.4 percent of the overall case count.

The DOH reminded the public to wear their face masks properly when outdoors. If possible, the public was encouraged to use surgical masks.

“Kaya sa ngayon, ang ating rekomendasyon kung kaya niyo na mag surgical mask, especially in those areas na matataas po ang kaso, let's use surgical mask (For now, our recommendation is ---if you can wear a surgical mask, especially in those areas with high cases, let's use a surgical mask),” said Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire in an online town hall event on Wednesday, Aug. 18.

“Pero kung hindi naman po kakayanin ng komunidad, cloth mask can still give protection, hindi po natin iyan tinatanggal sa equation (But if the community can't afford it, cloth masks can still give protection, we are not removing that in the equation),” she added.

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