PH breaks COVID-19 daily record with 22,415 new cases

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 6) — Daily COVID-19 cases in the country hit a new record on Monday as the Department of Health confirmed 22,415 more infections.

The number surpassed the previous all-time high of 22,366 cases reported on Aug. 30.

The DOH said the latest figures did not include data from eight non-reporting testing laboratories, which contributed around 2.3% of all samples tested and 2.3% of positive cases over the past two weeks.

The total case count reached 2,103,331, of which 159,633 or 7.6% are active. Around 92.1% are tagged as mild, 3.3% as asymptomatic, 2.48% as moderate, 1.4% as severe, and 0.6% as critical.

The department also said the highly contagious disease killed 103 more people, including seven who were mistakenly classified as survivors in earlier reports.

This raised the death toll to 34,337, which makes up 1.63% of the total number of infected.

Recoveries, on the other hand, rose to 1,909,361 with an additional 20,109. This means 90.8% of all cases have gotten well.

After final validation, the DOH deleted 68 duplicates from its data, including 53 survivors.

It also reported a positivity rate of 28.8% based on 73,264 tests reported on Sept. 4. This refers to the percentage of infected people out of all tested on the same day.

A positivity rate higher than 20% is considered at “critical level” and indicates insufficient testing, the U.S. nonprofit Covid Act Now said. The group also explained this suggests more widespread transmission and that there are likely more cases which have not yet been detected.

The record rise in cases came on the same day the government announced that the National Capital Region will ease to general community quarantine, the second least restrictive level, beginning Wednesday, Sept. 8.

Authorities said NCR will instead pilot localized lockdowns, which the DOH believes would be more effective in arresting the spread of the coronavirus.

The department also confirmed on Monday that the highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant is now present in all 17 regions of the country.

Cases among overseas Filipinos

In its weekly report on Filipinos residing abroad, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the tally of infections climbed to 23,036 after 130 more tested positive.

It added that 287 recovered and seven died over the past week, bringing the total to 23,036 and 1,376, respectively. These brought the number of active cases to 8,445.

The DFA said there are now 103 countries and territories with confirmed COVID-19 cases among Filipinos, following reports from the Middle East, and Asia and the Pacific.