By BETHEENA UNITE
One-thousand, seven-hundred thirty-eight new COVID-19 cases were reported Monday by the Department of Health, pushing the country’s total to 409,574.
There were 45 new recoveries, bringing the number of recovered patients nationwide to 374,366, which is 91.4 percent of the total cases.
However, seven new fatalities were recorded, hiking the death toll to 7,839.
Davao City has the most number of the new confirmed COVID-19 cases with 140, followed by Cavite with 117, Rizal with 89, Laguna with 87, and Batangas with 79.
There are 27, 369 active cases, of which 83 percent are mild cases, 8.5 percent are asymptomatic, 5.3 percent are critical condition, and three percent are severe cases.
The Health department noted that while a lot of laboratories were unable to submit data due to the series of typhoons that hit the country, there was no notable increase in cases when the laboratories started reporting back.
“During typhoon ‘Rolly,’ nag-report kami ng isang araw 26 laboratories were not able to submit. Nakita natin mababa talaga ang lumabas na resulta,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
“But after that, nag-resume na operation. Nakita natin di naman nagbago ang trend. Wala naman biglang pagtaas sa kasong naitala sa pang araw araw. We can see that laboratories reporting ay pare-pareho pa rin kahit may threat ng bagyo affecting their operations,” Vergeire added.
The Health Undersecretary also said that the non-submission of data from Region 2 did not have an impact in the national cases as there are only a few laboratories in the region which is affected by widespread flooding.
“I think we just have one laboratory there. Kaya kung naapektuhan man, it will not have an impact on the output of laboratories in totality,” Vergeire said.
