FOR the fourth day in a row, the Department of Health (DOH) reported more than 6,000 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the Philippines, bringing the total case count closer to 1.4 million.
In its case bulletin Sunday, June 27, 2021, the DOH reported 6,096 new cases, 128 additional mortalities and 6,912 recoveries.
The new cases brought the total Covid-19 case count in the country to 1,397,992. Fifteen duplicates, including 13 recoveries, were removed from the count.
The number is expected to breach 1.4 million on Monday, June 28.
The additional mortalities raised the Covid-19 death toll to 24,372, including 69 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries. The case fatality rate has remained at 1.74 percent for 11 consecutive days.
The new recoveries brought the total to 1,321,050, or 94.5 percent of the total case count.
As recoveries were higher than the new infections, the number of active cases declined for the second straight day. There were 52,570 Covid-19 patients in hospitals or isolation facilities as of June 25.
Most, of 89.5 percent, have mild symptoms while 2.0 percent were in critical condition and 1.4 percent were severely ill. The asymptomatic constituted 5.6 percent while those with the moderate form of the disease comprised 1.48 percent of the active cases.
The daily positivity rate remained high at 12 percent, although it has been at this level or even below for six consecutive days now. Testing output was lower at 47,927 than in the previous two days.
Three laboratories failed to report their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
On Saturday, June 26, the DOH tracker showed that the 10 areas with the highest number of cases were Davao City (346), Laguna (329), Cavite (238), Bohol (199), Leyte (187), Quezon City (168), Bacolod City (162), Iloilo Province (161), Negros Oriental (161) and Negros Occidental (145).
14-day total
Among the regions, Davao (Region 11) showed a 19 percent week-on-week increase in its 14-day running total to 5,590 on June 26 from 4,709 on June 19. Davao posted the fourth highest two-week case count on June 26, a step higher than its ranking on June 19.
Other regions posted declines, although Calabarzon, National Capital Region and Western Visayas still had the three highest new cases in a 14-day period.
As of June 26, Calabarzon had 8,857 cases in the last 14 days compared to 9,106 as of June 19, while NCR cases lowered to 8,267 from 8,546, and Western Visayas went down slightly to 7,814 from 7,930 for the same period.
Coming in fifth is Central Luzon, with 5,476 two-week running total as of June 26, lower than the 6,233 as of June 19.
Among the cities and provinces, Davao City posted a 22 percent increase in its two-running total to 2,963 as of June 26 from 2,421 as of June 19 while Iloilo Province entered the list of top five cities and provinces with the highest number of new cases over a period of two weeks.
Iloilo Province had 1,686 cases in the last 14 days to June 26, the DOH tracker showed.
Laguna Province continued to post the highest two-week running total with 3,032 as of June 26, higher than the 2,762 as of June 19 while Cavite posted a decline to 2,333 from 2,535 for the period.
Quezon City, which did not figure in the top five on June 19, came in fourth on June 25 with a running total of 1,721.
Delta variant
World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference Friday, June 25, that Delta is the most transmissible of the variants identified so far.
It has been detected in at least 85 countries and is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations.
Ghebreyesus noted an increase in transmission worldwide due to Delta, which could lead to more hospitalizations that will stretch health workers and health systems, and increase the risk of death.
“It’s quite simple: more transmission, more variants. Less transmission, less variants,” Ghebreyesus said.
He said the spread of the Delta variant makes it even more urgent that all the tools available to prevent transmission be used, mainly the consistent use of public health and social measures, and vaccination.
The Delta variant has forced Sydney, one of Australia’s largest cities, to go on a two-week lockdown. New Zealand has also suspended the travel bubble with Australia for a few days. In Thailand, the government announced new restrictions.
As of June 27, more than 180 million people worldwide has contracted Sars-CoV-2 and nearly 4.0 million had died, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Over 2.8 billion doses of vaccines against Covid-19 have been administered globally. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)