The Philippines breached 10,000 in confirmed COVID-19 cases on May 6.
The country now has 10,004 cases, recoveries at 1,506 and deaths number to 658. The Department of Health (DOH) also reported the number of health workers infected with COVID-19 is at 1,859. With these numbers, health workers infection rate is at 18.6% – or almost one out of five COVID-19 cases in the country is a health worker.
DOH COVID-19 CASE BULLETIN #053As of 4PM today, May 6, 2020, the Department of Health reports 320 new cases…
Geplaatst door Department of Health (Philippines) op Woensdag 6 mei 2020
DOH recorded 320 new cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day number of new infections recorded in the country in over a month. Of the new cases, 179 came from National Capital Region (NCR), 98 in Region 7 and 43 in other areas nationwide.
Forty new COVID-19 infections among health workers recorded on May 5 brought the total number to 1,859. Of these cases, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said 1,445 are considered active cases. Nine are severe cases, 1,000 are mild cases while 436 infected show no symptoms while 380 have recovered. Of the COVID-19 cases among health workers, 34 have died; 25 of them were doctors, Vergeire said on May 5
On May 5, Vergeire said infections among health workers are at 1,819. The breakdown is as follows:
- 685 nurses
- 590 doctors
- 107 nursing assistants
- 70 medical technologists
- 34 radiologic technologists
- 21 midwives
- 20 respiratory therapists, and
- 15 pharmacists.
The DOH earlier attributed the rise in cases to “expanded coronavirus testing.” So far, DOH has tested a total of 124,420 individuals. Of this, 12,872 or 11 % tested positive for the virus while 111,025 or 89% tested negative.
Vergeire clarified that the number of individuals found infected with the disease may be higher than the number of reported confirmed cases as these still undergo case investigation and validation. The reports of the local government units in NCR also vary with DOH report on cases in the region in DOH’s COVID-19 tracker.
The Health undersecretary also said on Tuesday that the country now has at least 8,000 daily testing capacity—which was its target a week before or by April 30. However, in the last seven days, tests conducted only number from 3,979 to 6,939 and the seven-day average is only at 5,454.
Individuals tested and tests per day from April 30 to May 6
DOH and National Task Force COVID-19 (NTF) Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez, Jr. said they aimed to conduct at least 20,000 per day by May 15 and 30,000 tests a day by end of May.
There are now a total of 23 licensed laboratories that can conduct the “gold standard” RT-PCR COVID-19 tests. The government targets 78 laboratories this month, said its newly-appointed testing czar and NTF deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon.
The Philippines ranks third in most number of COVID-19 cases in South East Asia, next to Singapore and Indonesia. Singapore has over 20,000 infections, 18 deaths and 1,500 recoveries. Indonesia has 12,000 cases, with nearly 900 deaths and over 2,000 recoveries.
