NEW coronavirus infections exceeded 2,000 for the fifth consecutive day Monday, March 1, 2021, as the Department of Health (DOH) reported an additional 2,037 cases.
In its case bulletin issued at 4 p.m Monday, DOH also showed four additional mortalities from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) and 86 more recoveries.
These brought the cumulative case count to 578,381, including 12,322 deaths, 534,351 recoveries, and 31,708 remaining active cases in hospitals and isolation facilities.
Given the low number of additional deaths, the case fatality rate declined to 2.13 percent on Monday.
The positivity rate in the 24-hour period until noon of February 28, however, was high at 7.5 percent as 1,063 out of 14,142 samples yielded positive results.
While Cebu City continued to post the highest number of new cases among cities and provinces, Cebu Province was on a decline as of February 28 as Quezon and Pasay cities in Metro Manila recorded an increase in cases.
Based on the DOH national Covid-19 tracker, Cebu City had 2,653 new cases in the last 14 days by date of onset of illness, followed by Quezon City with 1,331 and Pasay City with 1,293.
Cebu Province, which used to have the second highest number of new cases, had 1,243 new infections for the same period while Manila had 1,166.
The National Capital Region (NCR) remained at the top of the list among regions, with 8,046 new cases, followed by Central Visayas with 5,481 and Calabarzon with 2,231 for the same period.
Central Luzon recorded 1,418 new cases while Cordillera had 1,168 in the last two weeks as of February 28.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in his speech during the arrival of 600,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine against Covid-19 on February 28, reminded citizens and those who will be receiving the vaccine to continue complying with the minimum public health standards.
These include wearing of face masks and face shields, physical distancing and hand hygiene.
The 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine are good only for 300,000 people, less than one percent of the Philippine population. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)