The Philippines on Saturday, September 12, reported 186 additional deaths due to COVID-19, the country’s highest single-day death toll from the pandemic so far.

This surpassed the country’s previous record high single-day coronavirus death toll of 162 on June 13.

The additional deaths raised the country’s total COVID-19 death toll to 4,292 as of Saturday afternoon, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

The agency also reported 4,935 new confirmed cases of the disease, bringing total cases in the country to 257,863. Of these cases, 66,455 are active.

The increase in confirmed cases on Saturday was the country’s highest single-day rise since August 27, when the DOH reported 3,249 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The Philippines saw relatively low single-day increases in its COVID-19 case count over the past two weeks, leading some experts to say the curve of the pandemic may have already begun to flatten in Metro Manila, the pandemic’s epicenter in the country.

Of the 186 additional deaths reported on Saturday, 126 were previously reported as recoveries prior to “final validation,” the DOH said.

Two other cases previously reported as recoveries turned out to still be active cases. The agency also shaved 4 cases off the total case count after they were found to be negative for the virus. Three of them were earlier counted as recoveries.

The DOH also removed 32 duplicates from the total case count, of which 18 were earlier counted as recoveries and 2 as deaths.

All in all, 36 cases were taken off the total case count after validation of previously reported figures.

The DOH regularly disclaims that figures it reports undergo “constant cleaning and validation.” These adjustments in reported cases and their status mean publicized daily totals may change later on.

The agency noted that one out of more than 100 accredited COVID-19 laboratories in the country was unable to submit its data to the DOH’s COVID-19 Data Repository System on September 11.

Of the 4,935 newly reported cases on Saturday, 2,619 were from the National Capital Region, 343 from Cavite, 258 from Laguna, 227 from Rizal, and 177 from Negros Occidental, the DOH said.

Of the 66,455 active cases, 89.2% were mild, 8.2% were asymptomatic, 1.1% were severe, and 1.6% were critical, the agency added. – Rappler.com