Officials said COVID-19 treatment takes around 13 days to more than a month, depending on the severity of symptoms.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 8) — The number of coronavirus infections in the country rose by 120 on Friday, the slowest increase recorded in almost two weeks.
The Philippines now has 10,463 COVID-19 cases, the Department of Health said in its 4 p.m. bulletin. On Thursday, the DOH recorded 339 new infections – the highest in a month.
The number of people who have recovered from the viral illness has reached 1,734. The DOH announced 116 additional survivors – the highest number ever reported by the department in its daily updates.
Majority of the country’s active cases have mild symptoms.
Meanwhile, 11 more patients succumbed to COVID-19, raising the death toll to 696.
The DOH has explained its reports, including the number of new cases, are not the real-time data since all information have to be validated before reporting.
The country’s 23 coronavirus testing labororaties can now process up to 12,000 samples per day. The government targets to increase it to 30,000 by the end of May amid calls for mass testing.
Despite the rise in the country’s tally of confirmed cases, there has been an improvement in the doubling time — or the number of days it takes for cases to double. From only one to two days, the doubling time is now at four to five days, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said.
The entire country is now under general community quarantine while Metro Manila and several provinces are under stricter measures to prevent further spread of the virus.
Worldwide, COVID-19 has infected more than 3.8 million worldwide and killed 269,000 since the outbreak began in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Over 1.2 million have recovered, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 global tracker.
