MANILA (UPDATE)—The Philippines’ total COVID-19 cases climbed to more than 1.26 million, with 6,955 newly reported infections, the health department announced on Saturday.Â
This brought the country’s cumulative total to 1,262,273, of which 59,543 or 4.7 percent are considered active, the Department of Health’s (DOH) latest bulletin read.Â
There were 195 more COVID-19 deaths, pushing the country’s death toll to 21,732.Â
According to the agency, Saturday’s death included 102 cases initially classified as recovered.Â
This is the fourth straight day that fatalities counted more than 100, data showed. Except for Tuesday, the country had logged over a hundred deaths due to the virus since May 26.Â
ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said the day’s case fatality rate is the highest since April 15 this year.Â
Recoveries, meanwhile, climbed to 1,180,998 after 8,109 recuperations were recorded.Â
The total number of recoveries accounts for 93.6 percent of the country’s running tally.Â
Out of 48,668 individuals who underwent testing for COVID-19 on Thursday, 13.2 percent were found positive for the virus.Â
Nineteen duplicates, of which 15 are recoveries, have been excluded from the country’s cumulative total.Â
Two laboratories failed to submit data on time.Â
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier in the day said Mindanao accounted for 25 percent of this week’s fresh COVID-19 cases, outpacing the capital region.
Other areas outside the NCR Plus bubble (Metro Manila, Rizal, Laguna, Bulacan, and Cavite) also recorded a rise in virus cases, according to the health official.Â
The relatively high number of COVID-19 deaths in the past 2 weeks, meanwhile, was due to the fatalities being reported outside the NCR Plus bubble, she added.Â
Philippines breached 21,000 fatalities on Tuesday, exactly a week after breaching the 20,000-mark.Â
The novel coronavirus has infected over 172.6 million people worldwide, of which more than 3.712 million are fatalities, data from US-based Johns Hopkins University showed.
