By Analou De Vera
The country’s coronavirus (COVID-19) cases has breached the 270,000-mark after 3,550 new infections were reported by the Department of Health (DoH) Wednesday.
This brought the total number of COVID cases to 272,934 of which 60,344 are active cases – 87.7 percent have mild symptoms, 8.4 percent have no symptoms, and 1.2 percent in severe condition – while 2.7 percent are critical cases.
Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they observed an increasing trend of cases in 53 areas of the country.
Metro Manila had the highest number of newly-infected people with 1,459 cases followed by Rizal with 271, Cavite (196), Bulacan (172), and Laguna (172).
“Comparing August 31 to September 13 versus nung August 17 to 30…overall, there are 53 areas consist of provinces, highly urbanized cities, independent component cities with percent increase in the number of cases and we are closely monitoring and we have already coordinated with the different LGUs,” said Vergeire in an online forum.
According to DOH, the top 20 areas with increasing trend in cases are Cotabato City, Saranggani, Nueva Vizcaya, South Cotabato, General Santos City, Tawi-Tawi, Dagupan City, Abra, Biliran, Puerto Princesa City, Cagayan De Oro City, La Union, Bataan, Sultan Kudarat, Butuan City, Ifugao, Aurora, Negros Occidental, Davao del Sur, and Capiz.
The Health department, meanwhile, also recorded 524 new survivors while 69 others succumbed to the disease. The number of recoveries jumped to 207,858 while the death toll reached 4,732.
Vergeire said the increasing number of cases can be attributed to these factors: the expanded protocol for testing, efficient contact tracing, and community transmission.
“Sa pagkaka analyze namin based from yesterday’s analysis, nakita natin na meron pa rin talagang mga selected areas in the country na nagkakaroon nitong mga increase in the number of cases or may growth pag tiningnan mo yung trend for the past two weeks [Based on yesterday’s analysis, we saw that there are still really selected areas in the country that are experiencing increases in the number of cases or there is growth when you look at the trend for the past two weeks],” she said.
However, the Health official noted that the country’s response to curb the COVID-19 transmission continues to improve.
