The Philippines’ COVID-19 caseload breached 237,000, with new cases exceeding 2,800 on Sunday, September 6.

Meanwhile, over 23,000 recoveries were reported due to the Department of Health (DOH)’s weekly time-based tagging of mild and asymptomatic cases.

The DOH reported 2,839 new cases from 96 of 115 testing laboratories. This brings the country’s total coronavirus cases to 237,365.

Metro Manila remains the top source of new cases, with 1,170. It is followed by Negros Occidental, with 195 new cases; Laguna, 190; Cavite, 182; and Rizal, 154.

Of the total cases, 48,803 are active, of which 88.6% have mild symptoms, 8% are asymptomatic, 1.4% are severe, and 2% are critical.

The DOH also announced 23,074 new recoveries, for a total of 184,687 recoveries in the Philippines.

This huge rise in recoveries is attributed to the department’s weekly “Oplan Recovery” initiative. Mild and asymptomatic cases are tagged as recoveries based on discharging criteria by the World Health Organization and endorsed by Philippine medical societies. The criteria uses a time-based and symptoms-based strategy of assessing patients.

A total of 85 new deaths were also reported on Sunday, bringing the country’s COVID-19 death toll to 3,875.

Among these fatalities, 41 were from Metro Manila, while there were two or more deaths from the following regions:

• Central Visayas – 15
• Calabarzon – 9
• Eastern Visayas – 4
• Northern Mindanao – 4
• Central Luzon – 2
• Bicol – 2

Cagayan Valley, Mimaropa, Western Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Soccsksargen, Caraga, and BARMM reported one death each. There is also one death among repatriates or returning overseas Filipinos.

Moreover, 29 of these new deaths happened in September, 33 in August, 6 in July, 3 in June, 6 in May, 7 in April, and 1 in March.

The DOH noted that 44 duplicates were removed from the total case count, following cleaning and validation processes. Part of these are 28 recovered cases.

The department also said of the 27 cases previously reported as recoveries, 26 were found to be deaths and 1 was an active case after final validation. – Rappler.com