Philippines tops 1.1 million COVID-19 cases with 7,174 new infections

The Philippines’ COVID-19 tally reached 1.1 million on Sunday, May 9, as more than 7,000 new cases were reported.

The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed 7,174 new infections, bringing total COVID-19 cases in the country to 1,101,990.

The number of daily new cases has been below 10,000 for 3 weeks now, but the 7-day running average on Sunday remained high at around 6,700.

The DOH reported 204 new deaths on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 18,472. The last time it breached 200 reported deaths in a day was nearly 4 weeks ago on April 12, when 204 deaths were also reported.

Among these fatalities are 149 cases previously tagged as recoveries but were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Meanwhile, recoveries are up by 9,197, raising total recoveries to 1,022,224.

Of the total cases, 61,294 or 5.6% remain active.

The country reached a million COVID-19 cases just 13 days ago, on April 26.

The Philippines’ vaccination drive got a boost in the past week, with the delivery of 1.5 million purchased Sinovac doses last Friday, May 7, and 2.03 million AstraZeneca doses through the global COVAX Facility the following day.

Meanwhile, in its bulletin on Sunday, independent group Octa Research noted that the average number of new cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) from May 2 to 8 – at 2,172 cases per day – was 61% lower versus the average logged during the peak of the surge from March 29 to April 4.

Octa also said new cases in NCR in the past week decreased by 31% compared to the previous week. The reproduction rate – the number of people that one COVID-19 positive case can infect – likewise went down to 0.67 in Metro Manila.

It also noted that the region’s positivity rate in the past week slid to 14%.

“The NCR is expected to average less than 1,900 new cases per day by May 14,” added the group. – Rappler.com