MANILA, Philippines – Coronavirus cases in the country reached 52,914 on Friday, July 10, as the Department of Health reported 1,233 new cases.

With the latest figures, the country is now on its 8th consecutive day of new cases numbering over a thousand, as quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and Central Visayas were eased. Only Cebu City remained under lockdown.

Of the new cases, 544 came from Metro Manila while 58 came from Central Visayas.

The DOH said 848 of the total new cases are fresh cases whose test results were released to patients in the last 3 days. The rest – 385 – are late cases whose results were released more than 4 days ago.

A day after no new deaths were reported, health officials said that 42 more died of COVID-19, raising the death toll to 1,360. Of those who succumbed to the virus, 36 are from Cebu.

Recoveries, meanwhile, continued to increase. DOH said that 286 more people beat the virus, bringing the total to 13,230.

Of the total number of cases, 38,324 active are cases.

Earlier on Friday, the DOH said that over 12,000 tests have yet to be validated because COVID-19 testing laboratories have been “overwhelmed” with samples as cases continued to rise.

As of Wednesday, July 8, the country has 80 licensed testing hubs. The country’s testing capacity hovered around 16,000 to 21,000 this week – still below the government’s 30,000 testing capacity target in May.

The country has so far tested about 850,000 individuals out of the government’s total target of two million or 2% of the country’s 110 million population. – Rappler.com