THE Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday, July 16, 2020, reported 2,498 new cases of coronavirus infection, one of the highest in a single day.

The total case count jumped to 61,266 as of 4 p.m. Thursday, less than 24 hours after new community quarantine classifications were announced for the period July 16 to 31, 2020.

Of the total, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said 38,183 are active cases.

Of the 2,498 new cases, 1,246 are fresh cases based on reports from 71 testing laboratories and 1,252 are late cases.

Fresh cases refer to persons who were found positive for Sars-CoV-2 in the last three days while late cases are those whose test results came out at least four days ago.

Sars-CoV-2 is the novel coronavirus that causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

The DOH also reported an additional 29 deaths Thursday, raising the death toll to 1,643.

More than half, or 16, were from Central Visayas while nine were from the NCR, three from Davao Region and one from Caraga.

Eight patients died in July, 19 in June and two in May.

Meanwhile, an additional 467 patients have recovered from Covid-19, bringing the total recoveries to 21,440.

The DOH case bulletin also said 87 duplicates were removed from the total case count.

The bulk of the new cases, at 1,886, still came from the National Capital Region (NCR) while 198 came from Cebu, 57 from Cavite, 44 from Davao del Sur and 44 from Laguna.

NCR remains under general community quarantine (GCQ), a less restrictive form of quarantine.

President Rodrigo Duterte had initially approved a recommendation by UP experts to escalate quarantine restrictions in the capital because of the rising cases.

However, NCR mayors appealed for status quo and vowed to implement lockdowns in areas with high number of cases and strictly enforce quarantine rules.

Officials have warned that unless the rise in Covid-19 cases slows down by the end of July, NCR could revert to a more restrictive form of community quarantine. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)