NEWLY confirmed cases of coronavirus infection again went past the 2,000 mark in a single day while deaths increased by 28 as reports on mortalities in Central Visayas reached the Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday, July 23, 2020.

Based on its case bulletin, there were an additional 2,200 cases on Thursday, which increased the total case count to 74,390.

Of the total. 48,136 were active cases. Seventy-nine duplicates were removed from the case count.

The DOH also reported that 760 additional patients have recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), bringing the total recoveries to 24,383.

With the 28 additional mortalities, the death toll went up to 1,871.

Of the 28, 26 occurred in July while one happened in May and another in April.

Twenty-one were from Central Visayas (region 7) while seven were from the National Capital Region (NCR).

“Ang dahilan po kung bakit tila tumaas muli ang bilang ng mga reported deaths ay dahil mga reported deaths mula sa region 7 na ngayon lang po nai-report at naipasok sa ating system,” said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.

Most of the new cases were still from NCR or Metro Manila, the epicenter of the Covid-19 epidemic in the country.

There were 1,546 new cases in NCR, 246 in Cebu, 83 in Laguna, 61 in Rizal and 48 in Cavite.

Of the 2,200 additional cases reported by 76 testing laboratories, 1,314 were fresh cases or patients whose test results were released in the last three days.

The rest, or 886, were late cases, or those whose test results were released at least four days ago. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)