For the third straight day, the Department of Health (DOH) reported a record surge in the COVID-19 active cases in the Philippines, while the hospital ICU occupancy in Metro Manila entered critical level.

As of Saturday, April 10, the DOH said there were 190,245 active COVID-19 cases. Infected persons who are suffering from the effects of the disease and may need hospital care are classified under “active cases.”

This number started climbing Thursday, April 8, with 167,279 cases, and 178,351 on Friday, April 10.

As the active cases kept rising, the DOH noted that occupancy in the intensive care units of hospitals in the National Capital Region leaped to 86%, breaching into the critical level threshold.

The DOH rates ICU occupancy levels in the following manner: Moderate – 60% to less than 70%; High-risk – 70% to less than 85%; Critical – 85% and above.

ICU occupancy in the metro had been in the “high risk level” for the past 3 weeks, peaking at 82.11% on April 5.

The DOH also recorded Saturday 12,674 new coronavirus cases, the second-highest daily COVID-19 tally so far. It brings the total caseload to 853,209.

The department also tallied 225 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 14,744.

This record comes a day after the country registered an all-time high for deaths due to COVID-19 at 401 on Friday, April 9.

Just over a week ago, on April 2, the country’s COVID-19 single-day caseload was at its highest with 15,310 infections.

Meanwhile, 593 Filipinos recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 648,220. The health department said 49 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

The DOH said 19 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 7 were recoveries and one was a fatality.

Three labs were not able to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on Friday.

Since March, the Philippines has been in a record-breaking surge of COVID-19 cases. Relatives of COVID-19 patients have been turning to social media for help with finding available hospitals for admission, with some of them narrating how their loved ones died without proper treatment as there was no space available in hospitals.

The DOH has since redeployed doctors and nurses to virus epicenter Metro Manila to provide additional support to the capital region’s overwhelmed hospitals.

Metro Manila and 4 surrounding provinces, dubbed the “NCR Plus” bubble, are under hard lockdown or enhanced community quarantine until April 11, unless the government decides to extend it.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque is set to announce the new classification, which is being discussed by the government’s pandemic task force on April 10. He announced he tested positive again for COVID-19 on the same day. – Rappler.com