PH logs 7,204 new COVID-19 cases

Job Manahan, ABS-CBN News

For 9 straight days, daily tally has been fewer than 10,000

(UPDATE) — The Philippines logged 7,204 new COVID-19 cases a day after the country's total went past the 1 million mark, the health department announced on Tuesday.

The day's tally raised the country's cumulative total to 1,013,618, with 71,675 as active infections — the lowest since March 18, according to the ABS-CBN data analytics team.

According to the Department of Health, the relatively low number of new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday is due to the failure of 22 testing laboratories to submit data last Sunday.

The ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group (IRG) pointed out that this is the lowest number of fresh infections announced in nearly 3 weeks, or since April 7’s 6,414 cases.

This is also the 9th straight day that new cases counted fewer than 10,000.

Of those still battling the respiratory disease, 95.2 percent are experiencing mild symptoms, 1.5 percent are asymptomatic, 1.3 percent are severely ill, while 1.1 percent are in critical condition. 

The DOH also logged 63 more COVID-related fatalities, bringing the death toll to 10,916. 

For the 2nd straight day, the health agency recorded less than 100 fatalities. 

Tuesday's newly-reported deaths is the lowest announced in a single day in almost 3 weeks, or since April 8, the ABS-CBN IRG said.

A total of 26 recoveries, meanwhile, were reclassified as fatalities after the final validation of the DOH, it said.

Total recoveries from COVID-19 increased by 10,109 to 925,027, said the DOH, accounting for 91.3 percent of the Philippines' overall tally. 

It has been over a week since the DOH recorded thousands of new recoveries daily, as it stopped its weekly "mass recoveries" tagging to supposedly address skewed data.

Two laboratories were not operational on Sunday. 

Fourteen duplicates, 8 of which were recoveries, have been removed in the cumulative total, according to the DOH. 

The growth of daily infections has slowed down in the past 2 weeks due to stricter lockdown restrictions in Metro Manila and 4 surrounding provinces Rizal, Laguna, Bulacan, and Cavite — so called "NCR Plus" bubble, but some hospitals remained in full capacity. 

Because of this, experts and government officials have recommended the extension of the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in the bubble, to decongest hospitals still grappling with the disease. 

Based on the health department's latest bulletin, 69 percent of dedicated intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 64 percent of ward beds, and 59 percent of COVID-dedicated isolation beds in Metro Manila are currently occupied. 

Nationwide, the figures are lower at 63 percent for ICU beds, 53 percent for ward beds, and 47 percent for isolation beds.

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to announce new quarantine classifications on Wednesday for the month of May, as lockdown levels are set to expire by end-April. 

The Philippines has so far received 3.525 million COVID-19 vaccine doses and inoculated some 1.5 million people against the virus.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/27/21/philippines-new-cases-covid19-updates-april272021