The Philippines now has 574,247 confirmed COVID-19 cases after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,921 additional infections on Saturday, February 27.

This is the highest single-day caseload in 4 months and 11 days, or since October 16 when the country logged 3,139 cases.

The DOH also reported 42 new deaths due to the coronavirus disease, bringing the death toll to 12,289. Meanwhile, there were 293 Saturday, raising the total to 524,865. Of the total cases, 37,093 are active.

These numbers exclude data from 6 labs that were not able to submit their data on Friday, February 26.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire acknowledged the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country during the Laging Handa briefing on Saturday morning. She said the DOH sees at least two factors that might have caused the increase.

Vergeire said one factor was the easing of restrictions in certain areas. “Kaya po tayo ay nagpapaalala pa rin sa ating mga kababayan na kailangan po ay maging istrikto pa rin tayo sa pagpapatupad nitong minimum public health standards,” the health undersecretary said.

(That’s why we are reminding everyone that we still need to be strict with the implementation of our minimum public health standards.)

As of Saturday, the government announced that only Metro Manila and 9 other areas remain under general community quarantine (GCQ) until March 31. The rest of the country will be under the least strict modified GCQ.

Another factor that could have contributed to the increase in cases was the response of the local government units (LGUs), Vergeire said, reminding the LGUs to tighten quarantine and isolation protocols.

Meanwhile, the Philippines expects its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines, Sinovac’s CoronaVac, on Sunday, February 28.

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