THE Department of Health (DOH) reported more than 18,000 additional cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and over 20,000 new recoveries in the country Monday, September 20, 2021.
In its 4 p.m. Monday bulletin, the health department said 18,937 new infections were added to the tally, bringing the total caseload to 2,385,616.
The number of recoveries now totaled to 2,171,831 with 20,171 more individuals who have survived Covid-19, while the death toll climbed to 36,934 with 146 mortalities reported Monday.
Of the total confirmed cases in the country, 7.4 percent or 176,850 remained active, 91 percent or 2,171,832 have recovered, and 1.55 percent have succumbed to the disease.
The DOH said all laboratories in the Philippines were operational on September 18, but five were not able to submit data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
Based on the data in the past 14 days, the five laboratories that failed to submit results have contributed 1.6 percent of all the samples tested and 1.7 percent of the number of individuals who tested positive for the virus.
The DOH warned that the Covid-19 cases in the country will continue to increase in the coming days.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said earlier Monday that the National Capital Region, specifically, has not seen yet its peak of Covid-19 cases.
She said the peak in NCR may be reached by the end of September or early October.
Vergeire also announced Monday, September 20, that the Delta variant is now the most common lineage among sequenced samples in the Philippines.
On September 18, 319 new Delta cases, bringing the country’s total Delta cases to 3,027.
The DOH advised the public to continue to follow the minimum public health standards and submit themselves to vaccination to prevent the spread of coronavirus and help the government fight against Covid-19. (LMY/With TPM/SunStar Philippines)