THE Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, July 12, 2021, reported 100 additional mortalities from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), pushing the country's death toll past 26,000.
In its case bulletin Monday, the DOH also reported over 5,000 new infections for five consecutive days.
As of July 12, the Covid-19 case count in the country has reached 1,478,061, including the 5,204 new infections and less the 12 duplicates that were removed as well as 156 cases that were deactivated after they were tagged by the local epidemiology and surveillance units as duplicates.
Of these 168 duplicates, 159 were previously tagged as recoveries and six were initially reported as deaths.
The new mortalities, which included 62 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries, raised the death toll to 26,015, which constitute 1.76 percent of the total case count.
There were 5,811 new recoveries, bringing the total to 1,402,918, or 94.9 percent of the cumulative cases.
There remained 49,128 active cases, including 75 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries but were found to be active cases in hospitals and isolation facilities.
Eight laboratories failed to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System, resulting in a lower testing output of 45,439 on July 10. Of this number, 10.8 percent yielded positive results for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, in a press conference Monday morning, said cases are gradually declining nationwide.
But she warned against complacency and emphasized the need to continue adhering to public health standards such as wearing of face masks and face shields, physical distancing, avoiding crowds, improving ventilation in indoor areas and hand washing.
"This (declining case trend) is not enough reason for us to become complacent. We are in a race against the variants threatening our country," she said.
"Sa paghigpit po ng ating border controls sa lahat ng ports of entry sa ating bansa, dapat po pag-igihin po natin ang pagsunod ng ating minimum public health standards at ang pagpapatupad natin ng ating PDITR (prevent, detect, isolate, treat and reintegrate) strategy," she added.
She also stressed the need to get the vaccine, especially the senior citizens and persons with comorbidities who are at highest risk of hospitalization and death. They should be given priority, Vergeire said.
She also called on other eligible individuals to register for and get the vaccine.
"Magpabakuna na po tayo dahil ito po'y makaka-protekta hindi lang po sa inyo, pati rin po sa inyong mga pamilya," Vergeire said. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)