PH logs record 6,958 new Covid-19 cases

THE DEPARTMENT  of Health (DOH) on Monday reported record-high 6,958 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections, raising the overall tally to 136,638.

The DOH said the additional cases reported were based on the total Covid-19 tests done by 74 out of 99 operational laboratories.

Majority of the newly announced cases are from the National Capital Region (NCR) with 4,163 cases, Laguna with 400 cases, Rizal with 363 cases, Cavite with 312 cases and Bulacan with 178 cases. These are currently under the second most stringent modified community quarantine.

Of the new infections recorded, about 5,394 are fresh cases and 1,564 are late cases.

It also reported 633 new recoveries and 24 deaths. These figures increased the number of recoveries to 68,159 and the number of deaths to 2,293.

"Of these newly reported cases, 5,789 or 83 percent occurred within the recent 14 days (July 28-August 10, 2020). The top regions with cases in these recent two weeks were NCR with 3,447 cases or 60 percent, Calabarzon with 1,097 cases or 19 percent, and Region 6 with 205 cases or 4 percent," the DOH said.

It added that 233 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 143 recovered cases and one death were removed.

It updated the health status of six cases that were previously reported as recovered but after final validation - they were four deaths and two active cases.

The health department also noted that the country has 66,186 active cases -- around 91.6 percent are mild, 7.2 percent are asymptomatic, 0.6 percent are severe, and 0.6 percent are critical patients.

"Our case clustering report showed that there are 380 clusters in the NCR; 305 or 80 percent are in the communities and 34 or 9 percent in health facilities. Calabarzon has 174 case clusters and Region 7 with 171 case clusters – majority were also in communities," it added.

As of Sunday, the 76 licensed RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) laboratories and 24 licensed GeneXpert laboratories have already conducted a total of 1,673,503 tests nationwide.

The DOH said it has 17,400 total bed capacity dedicated for Covid-19 patients. Occupied are about 54 percent of 1,500 intensive care unit beds; 49 percent of 11,500 isolation beds; and 51 percent of 4,400 ward beds. (By Ma. Teresa Montemayor)