The Philippines has registered 22,366 new COVID-19 infections, the highest daily count it ever logged since the start of the pandemic last year, on Monday, August 30.
The new COVID-19 cases brought the active infections to 148,594 across the country.
The Department of Health said that of the active cases, 95.7 percent were mild, 1.7 percent were asymptomatic, 1.1 percent were severe, 0.97 percent were moderate, and 0.6 percent were critical.
“The number of cases may continue to increase in the coming days,” said the health department in its daily advisory at four o’clock in the afternoon.
There 16,864 patients who recovered from the serious respiratory illness on Monday, increasing the country’s recovery count to 1,794,278.
The death toll, on the other hand, stood at 33,330 after the health agency said 222 patients failed to survive the coronavirus disease.
Independent research group OCTA Research has earlier said that the number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in a day could reach 20,000 or more in the coming days because of the more infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
“Since we reached 19,000 a day, it could increase to more than 20,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, given that our reproduction number is still greater than 1 [nationwide],” said OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David during a media briefing on Monday.
Professor Ranjit Rye, also of OCTA Research, said the Delta variant had outpaced the government’s vaccination program and the people’s compliance to minimum public health standards, such as the wearing of face mask, face shield, and social distancing.
“When you get fully vaccinated, it takes six weeks for it to fully take effect. Delta’s transmission is faster than the effect of the vaccination,” he said.
“[The] Delta variant is a big factor because it is highly contagious. It is really hard to manage, especially if there is no strict compliance with minimum public health standards,” said Rye.
He said there was a noticeable decline in the compliance of minimum public health standards among the people. “So we suggest that people should stay home and if they need to go out to go to work, they should observe minimum public health standards,” added Rye.
At least 13.8 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, way behind the target of vaccinating 76.3 million Filipinos by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19.
