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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider PH reports milestone 103,185 mark in COVID-19 cases

PH reports milestone 103,185 mark in COVID-19 cases

Published Aug 2, 2020 06:17 pm

The COVID-19 health crisis in the country hit a milestone on Sunday, August 2, as more than 100,000 people were confirmed to have been infected by the deadly disease since the first case was detected last January.

The Department of Health (DOH) reported 5,032 new infections, raising the total number of cases to 103,185. The country’s new cases hit fresh highs  in terms of daily reported infections for four straight days already---beating the 4,963 cases recorded on Saturday, August 1. 

The active cases stood at 35,569, the DOH said. 

The number of recoveries is now at 65,557 with 301 new patients who have recuperated. The death toll jumped to 2,059 as 20 more patients succumbed to the respiratory illness. 

This scenario was way ahead of the projection of experts from the University of the Philippines (UP) last July 7--- saying that the country could surpass 100,000 cases by the end of August.

It can be noted that the Philippines only had a total of 38,511 confirmed cases on July 1. The daily tallies since then ranged between 290 to 5,000 cases.

The Philippines ranked 26th with the most number of cases worldwide, based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 dashboard.
Among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines placed second in terms of case total. 

As of Saturday, August 1, the Philippines has tested a total of  1,433,544 people or 1.35 percent of its 106 million population. The total number of tests conducted is at 1,534,319. Moreover, there are 97 COVID-19 licensed laboratories with an overall daily testing capacity of around 28,000.

Majority of the infections in the country are found in the National Capital Region (NCR), which is the epicenter of COVID-19 in the country. To date, the number of cases in NCR reached 53,135 with active cases at 17,613, based on the DOH COVID-19 tracker. 

Early in July, WHO Country Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe underscored the importance of releasing the test result in a fast manner with an ideal turnaround time of  “less than 24 hours,” as well as to strengthen the contact tracing initiatives.

He then also expressed concern over the spike of COVID-19 cases being detected outside the NCR, describing it as a “worrying phenomena.”

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that they are already expecting that the number of cases will shoot up due to the easing of quarantine restrictions.

Authorities continuously urged the public to remain vigilant and follow the precautionary measures at all times. 

The government relaxed quarantine restrictions in many areas of the country in June, while some reverted or remained under strict measures.

The NCR was downgraded to general community quarantine (GCQ) starting June 1 from the much stricter lockdown of modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

At that time, experts from UP said that it  “might be premature to relax the MECQ to GCQ” as the rate of transmission in NCR remains high.

Several medical associations on Saturday called on the government to place NCR under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) as healthcare workers are already exhausted and in order to slow down the increase of infections.

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