Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 28) — New COVID-19 cases in the Philippines breached 9,000 for the third consecutive day on Sunday.
The Department of Health reported 9,475 more people nationwide contracted the virus, bringing the cumulative count to 721,892. This does not yet include data from seven testing laboratories which have yet to submit their reports.
Of the total infected, 105,568 or 14.6% are active cases, the DOH said. At least 95.5% exhibit mild symptoms, 2.5% have no symptoms, 0.7% are critical cases, 0.8% are severe, and 0.43% are moderate.
Recoveries also surged to 603,154 after 22,000 more were cleared of the infection. It is the highest daily rise since Sept. 6. Another 11 lost their lives, however, with the death toll reaching 13,170.
After final validation, the DOH said it reclassified as deaths four cases previously tagged as recoveries and removed 25 duplicates from the total count, including three recoveries.
The bulletin showed a daily positivity rate of 19.8% as of noon of March 27. This refers to the percentage of those infected out of all tested in a single day. The World Health Organization recommends that the number be kept below 5%, and experts said a higher percentage suggests more widespread transmission and that there are likely more cases which have not yet been detected.
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it received no new COVID-19 reports among Filipinos abroad. Cases remain at 16,068 with 9,738 recoveries and 1,047 deaths.
