Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 4) — Another 1,590 people were diagnosed with COVID-19, while the nationwide death toll from the virus inched closer to the 11,000-mark, the Department of Health reported on Thursday.
The new cases brought the country’s total to 531,699, of which 32,775 or 6.2% are active cases. Two testing laboratories failed to submit their data on time and were not yet included in the official figures, the DOH said.
The number of fatalities also rose to 10,997 after 55 more were confirmed, 41 of which were previously tagged as recoveries.
Meanwhile, 249 more patients got well, raising the recovery tally to 487,927. This makes up 91.8% of the total infected.
After final validation, the DOH also said it removed nine duplicates from the overall count, including two recoveries.
Worldwide, more than 104.3 million people have been infected. Over 2.2 million have died while 58 million have survived the illness, the Johns Hopkins University tracker showed.
Among Filipinos abroad, the Department of Foreign Affairs recorded a spike in cases with 348 new infections. There are now a total of 14,389 overseas Filipinos confirmed to have caught the coronavirus. This is the highest single-day rise reported by the DFA since December 11. It attributed the surge to “an increase in cases in Europe,” as well as to late reports from the Middle East and Africa due to privacy concerns.
The DFA said recoveries also climbed by 88 to 9,052, while the death toll stayed at 954.
