Philippine coronavirus cases hit 38,805 with 294 new infections

Last updated on May 18th, 2021 at 06:09 am

MANILA – The Philippines’ confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rises to  to 38,805 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 294 more infections on Thursday.

The DOH said 242 cases are “late” cases or were part of the DOH’s backlog while 52 are “fresh” or detected within three days. According to the DOH, the new cases were significantly fewer compared in the recent days with the agency has report around 1,000 new infections.

10 of the new fresh cases were from the National Capital Region (NCR), 25 from other regions and 17 are those came from abroad.

The Department of Health also recorded 235 new recoveries and 4 deaths in two days.

According to DOH, all deaths were from June and the decrease in additional cases maybe from the changes in data extraction time.

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual presser that Out of the 72 laboratories, 58 of those submitted a line list. The reported cases is low because they have adjusted the time of extraction  from the Covid Kaya System.

The DOH has over 14,000 beds for Covid-19 patients ready at their disposal. Total of 2,039 ventilators on which about 22.61% are currently in use. COVID-19 has already infected over 10.6 million people worldwide with the death toll surpassing the 500,000 mark.