THE death toll from the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) epidemic in the Philippines crossed the 7,000 mark on Monday, October 26, 2020, more than seven months after the first Filipino mortality in the country was confirmed on March 11, 2020.
The reformatted case bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH) at 4 p.m. Monday showed 62 additional mortalities, raising the death toll to 7,039.
The DOH also reported 1,607 new cases of coronavirus infection, with Davao City again topping the list of provinces and cities with the highest number of new cases in a day.
Davao City had 90 new cases, followed by Cavite with 88, Rizal with 74, and Negros Occidental and Quezon with 68 each.
The 1,607 new cases on Monday were nearly 28 percent lower than the 2,223 cases confirmed on Sunday, October 25.
The new cases brought the total case count in the country to 371,630.
Of the total, 36,333 (9.8 percent) were active cases, 328,258 (88.3 percent) have recovered, and 7,039 (1.89 percent) had died.
The recoveries included the 245 new recoveries confirmed on Monday.
Of the 36,333 active cases, 82.6 percent developed mild symptoms while 10.9 percent were asymptomatic. Critical and severe cases constituted 4.1 percent and 2.3 percent.
The new DOH case bulletin also showed that 15,710 tests were conducted on October 25, with 1,490 (9.5 percent) yielding positive results for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Critical care utilization was low as 58 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds were available and 80 percent of the ventilators were not in use. Some 57 percent of the isolation beds and 65 percent of ward beds were also available. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)