Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 30) — The coronavirus cases in the country surged to 37,514 on Tuesday, as the Department of Health reported 1,080 new infections.
Of the new cases, the DOH said 858 were detected in the last three days, while 222 were part of the validation backlog.
This is the fourth time over the past week that health officials logged around 1,000 new cases in a day.
As of June 29, 95.6% of active cases are mild, 3.7% are asymptomatic, 0.5% are severe, while 0.1% are critical, according to the DOH.
Recoveries also crossed the 10,000 mark, after the agency listed another 277 recovered patients. This brought the total number of patients who have beaten the virus to 10,233.
Eleven more lost their lives to COVID-19, however, pushing the death toll to 1,266.
In its case bulletin, the DOH noted that Central Visayas accounted for most of the new infections at 468 cases. Metro Manila had 203, while the remaining 409 came from other areas nationwide.
Cases among Filipinos abroad meanwhile reached 8,474, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. This came after seven more tested positive for the virus, while another 10 got well and two more died. There are now 5,101 overseas Filipinos who have recovered from the disease while deaths climbed to 549.
Health spokesperson Ma. Rosario Vergeire said the Philippines’ COVID-19 positivity rate is currently at 7.1 percent, which is higher than the World Health Organization’s prescribed target of below five percent.
Vergeire added that the “R naught” — or the number of infections estimated to stem from a single case — is at 1.3 as of June 11. She said this number is also slightly above target.
“Ibig sabihin po sa bawat isang kaso ay nakakahawa sa mahigit isang tao,” she explained. “Basta one o mas mababa sa one ang ating R naught ay okay po tayo. Ngayong slightly above po tayo sa ating R naught, nangangahulugan po ito na kailangan nating mas magpursige pa lalo upang mapababa ito.”
[Translation: This means that for every one case, more than one people may be infected. As long as our R naught is at one or below one, we are okay. Now that it is slightly above [one], this means that we have to intensify our efforts to lower it.]
RELATED: UP study projects 60,000 COVID-19 cases by end of July
President Rodrigo Duterte is set to announce the fate of quarantine restrictions across the country on Tuesday, June 30, the same day the imposed lockdown measures are scheduled to expire.
