The Philippines’ coronavirus cases surpassed 1.4 million, after the Department of Health (DOH) reported over 5,000 new cases on Monday, June 28. 

The DOH tallied 5,604 new cases, bringing the total cases in the country to 1,403,588. Of these cases, 3.7% or 52,029 are active. 

The number of deaths also increased to 24,456, after 84 more fatalities were recorded.

Recoveries reached 1,327,103, after an additional 6,154 people recovered from COVID-19. 

The DOH also reported a positivity rate of 12.5% out of 42,771 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 earlier explained that the relatively low number of cases on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays is due to testing laboratories that are either closed or unable to submit data on time during weekends. 

On Monday, the DOH said all testing laboratories were operational on Saturday, June 26, but six were unable to submit data into the department’s COVID-19 document repository system. The six labs account for 1.5% of samples tested and about 2.5% of positive individuals.

Current quarantine classifications in the Philippines are set to last until Wednesday, June 30. Experts from Octa Research who are studying the pandemic in the country have backed health officials’ call to maintain the general community quarantine in Metro Manila in July. – Sofia Tomacruz/Rappler.com