BY ANALOU DE VERA
The COVID-19 health crisis in the country hit a milestone on Sunday as more than 100,000 people were confirmed to have been infected by the deadly disease since the first case was detected last January.
The Department of Health (DoH) reported 5,032 new infections, raising the total number of cases to 103,185. The country’s new cases hit fresh highs in terms of daily reported infections for four straight days already—beating the 4,963 cases recorded on Saturday, August 1.
The active cases stood at 35,569, the DoH said.
The number of recoveries is now at 65,557 with 301 new patients who have recuperated. The death toll jumped to 2,059 as 20 more patients succumbed to the respiratory illness.
This scenario was way ahead of the projection of experts from the University of the Philippines (UP) last July 7— saying that the country could surpass 100,000 cases by the end of August.
It can be noted that the Philippines only had a total of 38,511 confirmed cases on July 1. The daily tallies since then ranged between 290 to 5,000 cases.
The Philippines ranked 26th with the most number of cases worldwide, based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 dashboard.
Among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines placed second in terms of case total.
As of Saturday, the Philippines has tested a total of 1,433,544 people or 1.35 percent of its 106 million population.
The total number of tests conducted is at 1,534,319. Moreover, there are 97 COVID-19 licensed laboratories with an overall daily testing capacity of around 28,000. (Analou de Vera)
