Among Filipinos abroad, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported five new infections. The total is at 15,870 in 87 countries, with 3,714 cases verified by the DOH, the DFA said. One more patient recovered while no new fatalities were recorded. The recovery count is 9,548 and the death toll stayed at 1,041. There are also 5,281 people undergoing treatment.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 10) — The country’s total COVID-19 cases reached 603,308 on Wednesday after 2,886 more people caught the disease, the Department of Health’s bulletin said.
The DOH noted 44,470 active cases or currently ill patients, about 7.4% of the total. It is now the highest number of active cases after the Oct. 24 record that tallied more than 47,000 sick patients. At least 91.7% of the active cases have mild symptoms, 4% have no symptoms, 1.7% are in critical condition, 1.7% are in severe condition and 0.8% are moderate cases.
The death toll rose to 12,545 or 2.08% of the COVID-19 tally after 17 more people succumbed to the disease. Meanwhile, 221 patients recovered, lifting the survivor count to 546,293 or 90.5% of the case count.
The DOH said it reclassified four recoveries into fatalities after validation and removed four duplicates, including two recoveries. It also subtracted two cases from the total who were found to have tested negative for the coronavirus.
Data from five testing laboratories were not included in the total due to failure to submit their reports on time, the department added.
Meanwhile, the DOH’s COVID-19 tracker posted the March 9 positivity rate at 10.3%, the highest since early September. The positivity rate is the number of positive individuals as a percentage of the total individuals tested for the day. Out of 35,872 patients tested on March 9, there were 3,710 who tested positive. On September 9, the positivity rate was at over 11%. The DOH will post the March 10 positivity rate the following day.
