THE Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday, March 11, 2021, reported 3,749 new cases of coronavirus infection, the highest in nearly six months, as the positivity rate further increased to 11 percent.
The new cases are the highest in the period from September 20, 2020 to March 11, 2021.
Three cities in Metro Manila, or National Capital Region (NCR), now have the highest running total of cases in the last 14 days while Cebu City, which had occupied the top spot from late January to early March, fell to the fourth spot.
The DOH case bulletin issued at 4 p.m. Thursday showed the cumulative number of infections in the Philippines increased to 607,048.
Active cases increased further to 47,769, accounting for 7.9 percent of the total.
There were 63 additional mortalities, raising the death toll from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to 12,608. The case fatality rate remained at 2.08 percent.
There were 406 new recoveries, bringing the total to 546,671.
Of the 32,849 samples tested for Sars-CoV-2 as of noon on March 10, 3,613 or 11 percent yielded positive results.
Based on the DOH national tracker, the city with the highest number of new cases in the last 14 days to March 10 was Quezon City with 2,649.
It was followed by Pasay City with 2,324, Manila with 2,158 and Cebu City with 2,129.
Cavite Province had the fifth highest number of new cases for the period at 1,440.
Among the regions, the NCR continued to post the highest number of cases for the period at 15,323, followed by Central Visayas with 5,146, Calabarzon with 3,697, Central Luzon with 2,304 and Cordillera with 1,416.
The cities of Quezon, Pasay and Manila are implementing granular lockdowns in a bid to curb transmission of Covid-19. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)