Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 28) The country tallied 8,748 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, the highest in nearly four weeks, pushing the total to 1,209,154, the Department of Health said.
It is the biggest daily count after May 1, when there were over 9,000 new infections.
The death toll also jumped to 20,566 or 1.7% of the case tally after 187 more people lost their lives to the disease, according to the DOH bulletin. This is the third straight day this week that at least 150 daily deaths were reported.
The number of active cases or currently ill patients increased to 53,770 or 4.4% of the case count, with 93.2% experiencing mild symptoms, 2.2% without symptoms, 1.8% with severe symptoms, 1.4% in critical condition and 1.3% in moderate condition. Over the past four days, active cases remained below 50,000.
Meanwhile, 3,017 more patients got better, raising the recovery number to 1,134,818, which is 93.9% of cases nationwide.
The DOH said the numbers exclude data from four laboratories unable to submit their reports on time. These laboratories contributed an average of 1.1% of samples tested and 2.8% of positive individuals in the past 14 days.
Of the newly reported deaths, the DOH said 122 were earlier mistakenly tagged as survivors and added after validation, while 24 duplicate cases were removed, including 19 recoveries.
The daily positivity rate or rate of individuals who tested positive stood at 12.8%, based on 49,162 tests done as of May 26. The rate remained within the 11-13% range, which has been recorded daily since May 5. It is still far from the recommended percentage of below 5% by the World Health Organization. Experts say high rates may mean there is high transmission and more cases to be detected.
On Thursday, the OCTA research team noted a declining trend in infections in Metro Manila and nearby local government units, which suggested that the government may start considering easing restrictions. However, OCTA noted increases in cases in areas outside the National Capital Region, including the cities of Davao, Puerto Princesa, General Santos, Butuan, and Cebu.
The country tallied 8,748 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, the highest in nearly four weeks, pushing the total to 1,209,154, the Department of Health said.
