The Philippines posted a record upsurge in new coronavirus cases for the 3rd straight day on Saturday, August 1, bringing its total cases past 98,000.

The Department of Health (DOH) reported 4,963 new confirmed coronavirus cases as of Saturday, raising the number of all recorded cases in the country to 98,232.

The day before – Friday, July 31 – the DOH reported 4,063 new confirmed cases. New confirmed cases on Thursday, July 30, were 3,954.

As of Saturday, total active COVID-19 cases in the Philippines were 30,928, the DOH said.

The agency reported 93 new recoveries, bringing total recoveries to 65,265.

Seventeen new fatalities brought the total death toll to 2,039.

The top regions with cases within the recent 14 days, the DOH said, were Metro Manila with 2,087 cases or 52% of the total, Calabarzon with 959 cases or 24% of the total, and Central Visayas with 223 or 6% of total new cases.

Recent reported deaths from the disease were from the same regions, as well as the Ilocos region and the Zamboanga peninsula.

DOH said it removed 85 “duplicates” from the case count, including 6 recovered cases and one death.

Earlier on Saturday, the Philippine College of Physicians and more than 80 other medical groups urged the government to impose a two-week lockdown of Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, and Central Luzon, to give frontliners and the government itself some “timeout” to regroup and rethink its “losing battle against COVID-19.”

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the government’s pandemic policy task force will discuss the medical groups’ suggestion.

Vice President Leni Robredo urged the Duterte administration to heed the medical community’s “distress call.” – Rappler.com