Coronavirus cases surpass 50,000

THE Department of Health (DOH) reported a new record high of 2,539 coronavirus cases in a day, bringing the total case count to 50,359.

In its case bulletin as of 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 8, 2020, DOH said 36,457 are active cases.

More than four out of 10 new cases, or 1,066 (42 percent), came from the National Capital Region (NCR).

The agency said clustering of cases was observed in six new barangays in NCR, and in an additional one barangay each in Cebu City, Mandaue City, Palawan and Albay.

Confirmed cases at the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) also increased to 202 Wednesday from 198 on Tuesday. DOH said there was also an increase in the number of cases at a construction site.

DOH also reported 202 additional recoveries, bringing the total to 12,588, and five additional mortalities that raised the death toll to 1,314.

Of the five deaths, DOH said two occurred in July.

Among the new cases, 1,922 are fresh cases and 617 are late cases. Nine of 10 cases, or 90 percent, fell ill in the past two weeks.

Fresh cases refer to test results that were released in the last three days while late cases are those that came out at least four days ago but were validated by the Epidemiology Bureau only in the last 24 hours.

Of the 1,922 fresh cases, 883 are from NCR, 369 from Central Visayas and 670 from other regions.

Among the 617 late cases, 183 are from NCR, 74 from Central Visayas and 360 from other regions.

Meanwhile, DOH said 53 duplicates were removed from the total case count.

The number of cases that were confirmed Wednesday exceeded the 2,434 cases reported on July 5 and 2,099 cases reported on July 6.

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said the case count is expected to rise further because of the continued community transmission and increase in testing for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)