COVID-19 cases in PH surpass 300,000

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 25) — The country now has over 300,000 people infected with COVID-19 after 2,747 more contracted the disease, the Department of Health announced on Saturday.

The agency said the total count is now at 301,256. Of this number, 63,066 are active cases or currently ill, with 87.3 percent experiencing mild symptoms, 8.8 percent with no symptoms, 2.7 percent in critical condition and 1.2 percent in severe condition. It added that 90 percent or 2,471 of the newly reported cases were detected in the last 14 days.

Metro Manila topped the list of areas that recorded the highest number of infections with 1,115 new cases, followed by Negros Occidental with 196, Cavite with 153, Laguna with 112 and Cebu province with 107 more infected residents, the department reported.

The DOH also announced 787 new recoveries, raising the number of survivors to 232,906. Meanwhile, 88 others died from the disease, raising the death toll to 5,285. Of these deaths, one died in April, four in June, eight in July, 13 in August and 62 in September.

The department also mentioned that it removed 852 duplicate cases from the total, including 259 recoveries. The DOH added that after validating, it found that 21 deaths were mistakenly listed as recoveries from the previous report.

Three COVID-19 laboratories have not submitted their case reports and were not included in the total, the agency said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs also recorded three more Filipinos abroad who tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total infected to 10,433 in 78 countries. The DOH verified 2,116 of these cases, the DFA said. Four more people also died from the disease while nine have recovered. The number of fatalities rose to 790 while the number of survivors climbed to 6,654. There are also 2,989 people undergoing treatment, DFA mentioned.