Among Filipinos residing abroad, cases reached 13,633 after the Department of Foreign Affairs recorded nine new infections. Three more survivors raised the total to 8,748. The number of fatalities stayed at 944.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 21) — The COVID-19 tally in the Philippines jumped to 507,717 on Thursday, after the Department of Health listed 1,783 new infections.
Cases worldwide have hit past 96.9 million, the Johns Hopkins University tracker showed. The global COVID-19 death toll has topped two million, while recoveries are now at over 53.4 million.
Of the total count, the number of active cases or currently ill patients breached 30,000 after a month of staying below that mark. It is now at 30,126 or 5.9% of all confirmed cases.
According to the latest daily report, the top contributing areas are Quezon City with 99 more patients, Rizal with 83, the City of Manila with 78, Bulacan with 69, and Cavite with 66.
In a media briefing earlier in the day, Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH is also observing a rising number of infections in several regions outside of Metro Manila, including the Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, Bicol Region, Central Visayas, Davao Region, and Soccsksargen. She said the spike could be attributed to gatherings held during the Christmas season and issues in enforcement of health protocols.
Meanwhile, the country recorded another 500 COVID-19 survivors, which brought the total to 467,475.
Seventy-four were also added to the death toll, which is now at 10,116. The DOH said 15 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as fatalities.
It added that four testing laboratories failed to submit data on time and were not yet included in the updated count, and that it removed five duplicates from the overall tally after final validation.
