Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 24) — More than 14,000 people have been infected with coronavirus in the Philippines so far, the Department of Health reported Sunday.
The DOH reported 258 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, bringing the total of those who have gotten sick with the viral disease to 14,035.
Around 75 percent of the new cases were recorded in Metro Manila, while five percent were recorded among overseas Filipinos who were brought back home. Around 20 percent of the cases were recorded in various parts of the country.
Meanwhile, the DOH reported five more deaths, bringing the death toll to 868, while 72 more have gotten well from the disease, raising the number of recoveries to 3,249.
The Department of Foreign Affairs reported Sunday that three more Filipinos abroad have died of COVID-19, while one more got infected and another one recovered.
The country is in the middle of its “first wave” of COVID-19, health officials have pointed out, but the curve had “started to flatten” given that the number of cases per day has been decreasing since its peak of 538 new cases in a day on March 31.
Most of the country is under loosened quarantine rules, where several non-essential businesses have been allowed to open up, but residents below 21 years old, individuals 60 years old and above, pregnant women and people with health risks such as immunodeficiency conditions, are still discouraged from leaving home, unless their circumstance requires them to head out to get essential goods and services.
Metro Manila, Laguna, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Zambales are all under a modified enhanced community quarantine, while the cities of Cebu and Mandaue remain under the stiffer enhanced community quarantine.
The rest of the country is now under the more relaxed general community quarantine.
This brings the death toll among overseas Filipinos to 294, the total number of infections among them to 2,523, and the total number of recoveries among them to 879, according to DFA’s tally.
COVID-19 is a disease caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2, which is related to the virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Most cases of coronavirus among Filipinos abroad have been recorded in Europe, where a total of 785 cases have been reported, 95 of whom have died. But it is in the Americas, however, that the most deaths among Filipinos with coronavirus were recorded, at 150.
