By BETHEENA UNITE
The country recorded 2,638 new COVID-19 cases Monday, pushing the total to 359,169, the Department of Health said.
The DoH said 226 new patients have recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total recoveries nationwide to 310,303.
However, 26 patients succumbed to the disease, increasing the death toll to 6,675.
There are 42,191 active COVID-19 cases at present.
Quezon City had the highest number of new COVID cases at 141, followed by Cavite with 140, Laguna with 128, Batangas with 120, and Rizal with 108.
The Health department said of the 2,638 newly reported COVID cases, 1,932 or 73 percent occurred within the last 14 days from Oct. 6 to 19.
The top regions with COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks were the National Capital Region with 555 or 29 percent, Region 4-A with 463 or 24 percent, and Region 6 with 187 or 10 percent.
The DoH said 83.1 percent of the total active cases were classified as mild, 11.3 percent are asymptomatic, 3.6 percent are in critical condition, while 2.1 percent are severe cases.
Of the 26 COVID deaths, 15 occurred in October, two in September, five in August, and four in July. NCR had six fatalities or 23 percent, Region 12 with four or 15 percent, Region 9 with three or 12 percent, Regions 6, 8, and 4-A with two each, and Regions 1, 3, 10, 11, BARMM, CAR, and unspecified with one fatality each.
According to the Health department, 87 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Seventy-six recovered cases and three deaths have been removed while five cases previously tagged as recovered were reclassified as deaths.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Monday that they are currently looking further at reported cases of “long COVID” which is being experienced by patients across the globe.
Vergeire said symptoms like constant headache, inability to get sleep, chest pains, restlessness, and loss of taste and smell are reportedly felt by patients who have already recovered from the disease.
“Pinagaaralan ito sa ngayon. Kinokolekta natin mga information on individuals who are experiencing these symptoms para magka-evidence dito sa Pilipinas (We are studying this now. We are collecting information from individuals who are experiencing these symptoms to gather evidence here in the Philippines),” Vergeire said.
“As to recovered patients, they are instructed to report to their local health officers if ever they would be experiencing these set of symptoms related to COVID-19 or any health matter that they need to report after recovering. This is going to be a passive monitoring, where individuals are instructed to call their local health officers and when they experience COVID-19-related symptoms again,” she added.
