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The Philippines now has more than 200,000 active cases of COVID-19 or people who are currently infected with the coronavirus, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Saturday, April 17.
The DOH announced 11,101 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total active cases to 203,710 – the highest number of active cases so far.
The country’s total confirmed cases is now at 926,052. It has the second-highest case count in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, according to tallies of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The DOH said 72 more people died due to COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 15,810. The DOH recorded 799 new recoveries, raising the total number of recoveries to 706,532.
The DOH also reported a positivity rate of 17.7% out of 43,574 tests in its bulletin. These positive cases are added to the tally of confirmed cases only after further validation. This process helps ensure that cases would not be recorded in duplicates, and that all test results had been submitted, explained the department.
The DOH said nine laboratories were not able to submit their data on time.
Many Filipinos are struggling to get their COVID-19-infected family members into hospitals for treatment, especially in Metro Manila where hospitals are packed.
The Octa Research group in a report dated Friday, April 16, said virus epicenter Metro Manila would still have high numbers of new COVID-19 cases for the next weeks.
On Friday, April 16, the government’s pandemic task force approved the inclusion of more sectors eligible to get COVID-19 shots as economic frontliners under the A4 priority group. These include teachers, utilities employees, and media workers. – Rappler.com
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