BY BETHEENA UNITE
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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country breached 56,000 Monday after the Department of Health (DoH) released a late case bulletin.
A total of 2,124 new cases were confirmed, bringing the nationwide cases to 56,259 and the active cases to 38,679.
Recoveries rose to 16,046 with 2,009 new recovered patients while the number of deaths grew to 1,534 as 162 patients recently succumbed to the dreaded illness.
While an increased number of deaths was reported for July 12, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire clarified that most of the new reported deaths happened in the previous months. Based on the data reported by the local government units and hospitals, of the 162 deaths, 51 happened this July while 90 of them took place in June, 20 in May, and one in April.
Of the 51 deaths, 18 were recorded last week while the rest was during the first week of July. Most of the deaths were recorded in Central Visayas.
The department clarified that the update on the cases came almost a day late as they were also waiting for data from the laboratories, which give updates on the confirmed cases, and local government units (LGUs) and hospitals, which transmit updates on the recoveries and deaths.
“Ang DoH ang official repository ng data na sina-submit sa atin ng mga laboratories, LGUs, at hospitals. Simple lang, kung walang submission o update, wala rin kaming ire-report,” Vergeire said in a virtual press briefing.
