THE Department of Health (DOH) reported a total of 465,724 coronavirus infections in the country, including 1,776 cases that were confirmed positive for Sars-CoV-2 on Thursday, December 24, 2020.
Quezon City continued to post the highest number of new cases with 128, followed by Davao City (121), Rizal (94), Western Samar (57) and Bulacan (56).
There were seven additional mortalities, raising the death toll from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to 9,055. The case fatality rate swung back to 1.94 percent.
There were 533 more recoveries, pushing the total to 430,490, or 92.4 percent of the total case count.
The DOH said there remained 26,179 active cases in the country.
Expecting a surge in infections this Christmas season, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III called on all accredited laboratories to stay open during the holidays.
"We urge all laboratories to aid the government in meeting the increased testing demand that comes with the observed increase in cases,” Duque said in a statement.
In advance, the health chief thanked all the laboratory personnel for their sacrifices that extend during the Christmas holidays.
"Your commitment to continue operations in spite of the holidays is noteworthy as much as it is needed," said Duque.
There are 153 accredited RT-PCR laboratories and 45 licensed GeneXpert laboratories across the country. (HDT / SunStar Philippines)