NEW cases of coronavirus infections breached 3,000 in a day, hitting a new high since mid-October 2020.
In its case bulletin issued at 4 p.m. Friday, March 5, 2021, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 3,045 new cases, the highest for the period October 17, 2020 to March 5, 2021.
These raised the cumulative case count in the country to 587,704. The number of active cases in hospitals and isolation facilities increased to 40,074, or 6.8 percent of the total.
The positivity rate remained elevated at 9.2 percent, as 3,093 out of 32,120 samples tested in a 24-hour period to noon of March 4 were found positive for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
The new cases were announced a few hours after the DOH confirmed more than 100 additional cases that were found to carry the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants of Sars-CoV-2 as well as “mutations of potential clinical significance.”
Read: PH detects over 100 more Covid cases with variants, mutations
The DOH case bulletin also showed 19 additional deaths from Covid-19, raising the death toll to 12,423. The case fatality rate further declined to 2.11 percent as deaths remained low and cases increased.
There were an additional 178 patients who have recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 535,2017 or 91.1 percent of the total.
Based on the DOH national tracker, Cebu City continued to post the highest running total of new cases in the recent 14 days as of March 4 among cities and provinces with 2,497 cases.
It was followed by Quezon City (1,697), Pasay City (1,640), Manila (1,423) and Cebu province (1,186).
Among the regions, the National Capital Region’s running total for the same period breached 10,000.
NCR continued to post the highest at 10,079, followed by Central Visayas (5,292), Calabarzon (2,526), Central Luzon (1,674) and Western Visayas (1,121).
The DOH earlier Friday announced that the UP Philippine Genome Center had detected an additional 52 cases with the B.1.351 lineage of Sars-CoV-2, 31 more B.1.17 cases and 42 more cases with mutations.
The B.1.351, which was first detected in South Africa, and B.1.17, which was first announced in the United Kingdom, have been reported to be highly transmissible.
The “mutations of potential clinical significance” reported by the DOH refer to the N501Y and E484K mutations.
The N501Y mutation was found in the B.1.1.7 lineage, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Both the N501Y and E484K mutations as well as another mutation K417N are found in the B.1.351 lineage.
There are now 58 B.1.351 variant cases, 118 B.1.1.7 variant cases and 76 cases with mutations in the country. (Marites Villamor-Ilano with HDT/SunStar Philippines)