FOR the second day in a row, the Department of Health (DOH) reported an increase of more than 2,000 in confirmed cases of coronavirus infection.
In its case bulletin as of 4 p.m. Monday, July 6, 2020, the DOH listed an additional 2,099 cases, which brought the total Covid-19 tally in the country to 46,333.
Of the total, 32,845 are active cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), according to DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
The National Capital Region still accounted for the highest number of new cases, followed by Central Visayas and Calabarzon regions.
Vergeire said cases In Metro Manila have been rising in the past two weeks while those in Visayas have been observed to be “slowly decreasing”.
“But we must continue to monitor the area if the decrease will be sustained,” she said.
She added that the government is focusing on NCR and Cebu, where clustering of cases has been detected.
In Cebu City, Vergeire said clustering was observed in 64 barangays while in NCR, clustering was found in 314 barangays and in three closed-setting facilities.
Emerging hotspots in NCR, or Metro Manila, are the cities of Marikina (51 cases and 43.47 case growth rate), Muntinlupa (30 cases and 35.16 percent case growth rate), Quezon City (406 cases and 34.5 percent case growth rate), and Makati (135 cases and 30.18 percent case growth rate).
Meanwhile, Vergeire said an additional 243 patients have recovered, increasing the number of recoveries to 12,185.
Six additional deaths were recorded, raising the death toll to 1,303. Five of the six deaths reported Monday occurred in June yet.
Out of the 2,099 new cases, Vergeire said 1,258 are fresh cases and 841 are late cases.
Fresh cases refer to test results that were released in the last three days while late cases refer to test results that came out more than three days ago but were validated by the Epidemiology Bureau only in the last 24 hours.
Although cases are seemingly increasing at a faster rate, Vergeire said the national case doubling time as of July 3 was still around eight days, or 7.95 days. This is the length of time that it takes for confirmed coronavirus cases to double.
She said this means that the situation is “still manageable”.
Vergeire said the case doubling time was also computed at 7.95 days in Cebu City and 8.39 days in NCR.
Meanwhile, Vergeire said the country’s reproductive rate as of June 17 was 1.09. This means that an infected person can infect more than one person.
The DOH reported the biggest spike in infections in a single day on Sunday, July 5, when the country's coronavirus count increased by 2,434 cases. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)