A concert sponsored by a local church has been blamed for the rise in COVID-19 cases in the province of Northern Sama in the central Philippines.
The province’s governor, Edwin Ongchuan, told a media briefing on June 12 that people from other towns entered the province for the concert.
Northern Samar, located in Eastern Visayas, had 218 active cases, as of June 10, which includes additional 123 additional cases recorded on that day alone.
“Based on our contact tracing, there was a church concert attended even by people outside the municipality,” said the governor without giving details of the event.
The Health department has earlier announced that gatherings, such as parties and concerts, are still prohibited.
The Philippines on Monday, June 14, reported 6,426 new COVID-19 cases while 7,145 were reported to have recovered from the disease.
There were 57 more COVID-19 patients who died, bringing the country’s death toll to 22,845.
The total number of deaths represents 1.73% of the 1.33 million total confirmed cases in the country, the Health department said in its daily case bulletin.
Of the confirmed cases, 59,096 are active cases, most, or 95.7% of which only have mild or have no symptoms.
There were already 1,240,112 recoveries, including an additional 7,145 new patients who have recovered from the disease.
