AS TESTING output improved, new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) increased again to over 8,000 Thursday, August 5, 2021, and active cases hit a new high in three months.

The total active cases in the country increased to 66,895, highest since the 69,466 active cases reported on May 3, 2021.

In its case bulletin Thursday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 8,127 new cases, 196 additional deaths and 4,343 new recoveries.

The new cases exceeded 8,000 in five out of the last seven days from July 30 to August 5.

The positivity rate increased further to 17.3 percent out of the 56,035 samples tested on August 3. One laboratory was not operational and three others were unable to submit their testing output to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The new infections brought the cumulative Covid-19 case count nationwide to 1,627,816, less the 135 duplicates that were removed from the tally.

The additional deaths, which included 131 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries, raised the Covid-19 death toll in the Philippines to 28,427. The case fatality rate swung back to 1.75 percent.

With the new recoveries, the total went up to 1,532,494.

There were, however, 15 cases tagged as recoveries that were found to be active cases.

Of the active cases as of August 3, 1.1 percent were critical, 1.9 percent were severe, 1.3 percent were moderate, 94.6 percent were mild and 1.0 percent were asymptomatic. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)