For the first time in nearly six months, over 4,500 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients were reported by the Department of Health (DOH) on Friday, March 12.

The last time the country logged 4,000 cases in a single day was on Sept. 14, 2020, wherein 4,699 cases were then reported.

In its latest case bulletin, the DOH said 4,578 more people tested positive for COVID-19, raising the country’s cumulative tally to 611,618. The DOH said that 8.5 percent of the overall tally or 52,012 were active cases or those who were still battling with the disease.

Of these cases, 92.2 percent have mild symptoms, 4.1 percent were asymptomatic, 1.5 percent were critical, 1.5 percent were severe, and 0.71 percent have moderate symptoms.

The death toll also increased to 12,694 by 87. This means that the country’s case fatality rate is at 2.08 percent.

Meanwhile, 272 new recoveries were reported, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 546,912.

Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire acknowledged that the presence of the United Kingdom and South African variants of coronavirus have contributed to the spike in cases. “Alam natin these variants have higher transmissibility. So itong nakikita nating pagtaas, na aagravate po sya nitong mga variants na meron tayo ngayon (We know these variants have higher transmissibility.

These variants aggravate the rise in the number of cases),” she said in a press briefing.

However, Vergeire said that non-compliance to minimum health standards remained as the main reason why there was an uptick in cases. “Alam natin root cause yung (We know that the root cause is the) minimum health protocols. Because of our non-compliance, the infection can spread and you can get infected or you can infect others,” she said.