Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 26) — The country recorded 1,173 more coronavirus cases on Tuesday, pushing the overall tally to 516,166.
This is the lowest daily rise in nearly three weeks after the country briefly recorded an uptick in infections following the holiday celebrations.
The Department of Health said active cases are at 30,357 or 5.9% of the total infected. It also noted that the latest figures exclude data from nine testing laboratories which failed to submit on time.
The highest number of new cases was seen in Cebu City with 84, followed by Davao City with 67, Cavite with 51, Quezon City with 47, and Rizal with 41.
The death toll also rose to 10,386 with 94 new fatalities, including 15 that were previously tagged as recoveries. Meanwhile, 18 more patients have survived the illness bringing the total number of survivors 475,423.
After final validation, the department said it removed three duplicates from the total cases.
Experts monitoring the pandemic in the country said the trend in the new COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila has “remained flat” over the past week, while spikes in infections have been observed in Mountain Province and Kalinga.
Authorities are keeping an eye on the municipality of Bontoc in Mountain Province, which so far accounts for 12 of the country’s 17 confirmed cases of the new and more transmissible UK coronavirus variant. Five barangays in the area have already been placed under the strictest form of lockdown.
The global case tally has hit over 99.7 million people, with 2.1 million deaths and 55.1 million recoveries, based on data from the Johns Hopkins University.
READ: Source of UK variant that spread in Bontoc not yet conclusive – DOH
Among Filipinos abroad, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported 29 new infections, raising the total to 13,857. The number of survivors also rose to 8,845 with 17 more added, while fatalities stayed at 945 for the fourth consecutive day.
