DOH logs 181 new COVID-19 deaths as active cases breach 60,000
The country recorded 181 new COVID-19 deaths on Friday, bringing the death toll to 21,537, according to the Department of Health.
It is the third day in a row this week that saw more than a hundred fatalities. The death toll is now 1.72% of the total number of infections, which rose to 1,255,337 after 7,450 more people caught the coronavirus.
The DOH case bulletin also counted 60,794 active cases – the highest in nearly a month, and just below the over 61,000 ill patients reported on May 9. The active case count makes up 4.8% of the case total.
At least 93.9% of the active cases have mild symptoms, 2% have no symptoms, 1.6% have severe symptoms, 1.3% are in critical condition and 1.15% are in moderate condition.
The recovery count also rose to 1,173,006 or 93.4% of the COVID-19 count after 2,382 more people were cleared of the coronavirus.
The DOH said 119 of the newly reported deaths were mistakenly tagged as survivors previously and were reclassified after validation. It also deleted 12 duplicate cases, including nine recoveries and one fatality.
The total excludes data from five laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time. These laboratories contributed 2% of samples tested and 2.7% of positive individuals in the last 14 days, the DOH noted.
The daily positivity rate is at 13.6% based on 48,862 tests conducted as of June 2. The rate is still far from the World Health Organization’s recommended rate of below 5%. Experts have said high rates may mean high transmission and more cases left undetected.
Meanwhile, the national government placed Davao City under the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) over increases in infections. General Santos City was also placed under general community quarantine (GCQ).
These two cities were among the “areas of concern” where the OCTA research team noted significant upward trends in cases outside NCR Plus (Metro Manila, Laguna, Rizal, Cavite, and Bulacan).
On Thursday, OCTA said Metro Manila’s reproduction number or the number infected by one case, rose slightly to 0.68 from 0.57 over the past week. There was also a growth rate of 8% in its seven-day average of new cases. It is the first time the region recorded an increase since the peak of the recent surge, OCTA said.
For the entire country, the reproduction number climbed to 1.09 while the 7-day average of new infections increased by 37% to 6,699. This was coming from 4,898 in the previous week, which is the lowest daily average since the peak of the surge in April.
Among Filipinos abroad, 102 new cases were detected, as well as nine new recoveries, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. The total number of infected is now at 19,876 with 12,053 survivors while the death toll stayed at 1,194. There are also 6,629 people still undergoing treatment.
