The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday, April 6, recorded 9,373 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing total caseload in the country to 812,760.

Of these cases, 18.8% or 152,562 cases are active or currently sick.

The DOH also reported 382 deaths due to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 13,817. Meanwhile, recoveries are up by 313, raising the total to 646,381.

The health department noted that the reported deaths on Tuesday includes “341 deaths prior to April 2021 that went unreported.” Its reporting system encountered a “technical issue” that resulted in “lower reporting of COVID-19 deaths over the past week.”

“The number of deaths reported today includes the said deaths not reported in previous counts,” the DOH said.

The DOH also reported a positivity rate of 19.9% out of 27,055 tests in its bulletin. These positive cases are added to the tally of confirmed cases only after further validation. The department explained that the process helps ensure that cases would not be recorded in duplicates, and that all test results had been submitted.

The DOH said 10 laboratories were not able to submit their data on time.

The Octa Research group earlier said that the Philippines may hit 1 million COVID-19 caseload by the end of April.

The DOH said on Monday that it was looking to set up a “triage system” across local government units to manage the flow of patients needing health care. 

In recent days, 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 due as there was no space left in hospitals.

Meanwhile, a biosurveillance expert from the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, is in the Philippines to aid the country’s response to the pandemic. – Rappler.com