The Philippines broke its second-highest COVID-19 cases in a day since the start of the pandemic after logging 17,447 additional cases on Friday, August 27.
The health department said the figure brought the total number of infections in the country to 1,916,461. There were 6,771 recoveries reported and 113 deaths.
Of the total number of infections, 7.4 percent (142,531) are active, 90.8 percent (1,741,089) have recovered, and 1.71 percent (32,841) have died.
Dr. Edsel Salvaña of the Department of Health Technical Advisory Group said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country is expected to increase in the coming days.
He likened the Delta Variant of the disease to a tsunami in terms of infecting people
“The cases will really increase because the Delta variant is two to three times more infectious,” Salvaña said during the health department’s media briefing on Friday.
He assured the public, however, that the Philippines is not helpless because the vaccination against the disease is ongoing.
“Vaccination is our last line of defense on top of compliance with minimum public health standards because vaccination reduces the risk of an individual ending up in a hospital due to COVID-19,” he said.
He urged Filipinos to support the health care system by being vaccinated.
The country has already vaccinated about 13 million Filipinos, way behind the target of vaccinating 76.3 million Filipinos by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19.
A report by the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group said Friday was the 12th straight day that active infections counted more than 100,000.
ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said the number of active cases is the highest in over 4 months or since April 17.
The positivity rate is at 26.1 percent based on test results of 70,396 individuals who got screened for the virus on Wednesday. This means 1 in every 4 people tested turn out positive.
Guido noted that the positivity rate is the highest since data became available from the agency.
