The country logged 16,313 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Thursday, Aug. 26, pushing the country's running tally to 1,899,200.
The Department of Health (DOH) said that 6.9 percent of the total case count or 131,921 are considered active cases or patients still receiving treatment.
Most of the active cases are experiencing mild symptoms at 96.1 percent, 1.1 percent are asymptomatic, 0.6 percent are in critical condition, 1.2 percent with severe symptoms, and 1.03 percent are in moderate condition.
The recovery count, meanwhile, increased to 1,734,551 after 9,659 more patients were cleared from COVID-19.
However, 236 more people lost their lives, including the 125 cases previously tagged as recoveries. This brought the country's death toll to 32,728.
DOH Epidemiology Bureau Director Dr. Alethea De Guzman said that they observed a slight increase in the number of deaths related to COVID-19.
“For our mortality, we are seeing deaths per day increase,” she said in an online forum on Thursday, Aug. 26.
“After a peak of 135 deaths per day in April, it slowly went down, and the lowest was last July at 94. Subalit as of Aug. 25, tayo ngayon ay nagri-register ng 109 deaths per day (But as of Aug. 25, we are now registering 109 deaths per day),” she said.
“Upon the end of July, we really saw an increase in our deaths. Initially, it was actually in Region 7, but more recently---nakikita natin na tumataas na siya sa NCR (we observe a rise in NCR) and of course Calabarzon,” she added.
However, De Guzman said that the country’s case fatality rate remains at 1.73 percent.
“Our analysis of that is that---you know, even with more cases--yes, we will see deaths---but the proportion of deaths to those cases is not higher than what we are seeing in the previous year,” she said.
De Guzman, meanwhile, advised the public to remain vigilant amid the rising number of COVID-19 infections.
“Limit unnecessary travel. Avoid non-essential gatherings such as family gatherings, conferences, and meetings which can be done virtually,” said the DOH official.
The public should also do “active self monitoring and immediately self-isolate upon experiencing symptoms of COVID-19,” said De Guzman.
“Practice the minimum public health standards. Get vaccinated. They are our best defense against any variant,” she added.