THE daily tally of coronavirus cases fell below 1,000 for the first time in nearly four months on Wednesday, November 4, 2020, but the Department of Health (DOH) said this was just "part of the effects" of Typhoon Rolly (Goni).
The agency confirmed 987 new cases of infection Wednesday, the lowest since mid-July. These new cases brought the total case count in the country to 388,137.
"The relative low report in the new cases is part of the effects of Typhoon Rolly. We further caution that this decrease may still be observed over the next few days, and may be followed by a relative 'increase' in newly reported cases in the coming days or week," DOH said in statement.
Of the total case count, 31,679 or 8.2 percent were active cases.
The DOH case bulletin also showed 49 additional deaths, raising the death toll from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to 7,367, or a case fatality rate of 1.9 percent.
There were 140 new recoveries, which pushed the total to 349,091.
Davao City, with 136 additional cases, again topped the list of areas with the highest number of new cases followed by Iloilo province with 67, Quezon City with 47, Taguig City with 43 and Iloilo City with 41.
A total of 16,163 tests were conducted nationwide on November 3, of which 1,145 or 7.1 percent yielded positive results.
Coronavirus infections in the country peaked in August, reaching a high of 6,958 on August 10. An average of more than 4,000 cases a day were recorded in August.
The daily average declined to 3,029 in September and further to 2,227 in October.
In the first four days of November, new cases averaged 1,852 a day.
From 20th worldwide, the Philippines now ranks 23rd among countries with the highest number of infections.
More than 47.4 million people globally have been infected with Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 as of November 4, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Over 1.2 million of those infected had died. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)