MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Thursday logged 12,439 more coronavirus cases, bringing the case total to 1,700,363.
Today’s count is the highest since April 10, when the country saw 12,674 new infections. Active cases were up by 6,264 from 81,399 on August 11.
The Department of Health said two laboratories did not submit testing results.
- Active cases: 87,663 or 5.2.% of the total
- Recoveries: 6,090, bringing the number to 1,583,161
- Deaths: 165, or now 29,539 in total
Health chief under fire anew
- Senators called for an investigation into the “deficiencies” in DOH’s COVID-19 spending last year. They were not convinced by Secretary Francisco Duque III’s assurance that the funds in question have been accounted for.
- The Philippines detected 177 more cases of the highly infectious Delta variant, majority of which had indicated address in Metro Manila.
- DOH said pregnant women will now be included in the government’s priority groups to get the COVID-19 vaccine. A health official said the jabs are generally safe for them.
- There are now more than 12 million Filipinos complete with their COVID-19 shots, per government figures. That is out of the targeted 70 million this year. Some 14.1 million, meanwhile, have received their first dose.
- The Department of the Interior and Local Government said village watchmen and other police auxillary units are not allowed to carry firearms. It came after the shooting of a quarantine “violator” by a barangay tanod.
Reporting by Albert Rovic Tan
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