By Gerard Naval and Jocelyn Montemayor
NEARLY 2,000 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases were reported by the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday, while seven more patients succumbed to the deadly virus, raising the number of fatalities to 7,839.
In its latest bulletin, the DOH said of the 1,738 new cases, 140 came from Davao City while Cavite had 117, Rizal 89, Laguna 87, and Batangas 79.
Overall, the number of infections in the country rose to 409,574.
The case fatality rate in the country is 1.91 percent, according to the DOH.
There were 45 new recoveries, meaning the number of survivors has risen to 374,366.
This means that 91.4 percent of COVID patients have recovered while there are 27,369 active cases, representing 6.7 percent of COVID-19 cases in the country.
Of the active cases, 83 percent are mild cases, 8.5 percent are asymptomatic cases, 5.3 percent are critical cases, 3 percent are severe cases, and 0.20 percent are moderate cases.
National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. warned of a possible spike in the coronavirus disease cases due to the disregard of health protocols in evacuation centers.
He assured the public, however, that government is prepared to manage such a situation.
“The government is prepared to handle the situation… because there had been a succession of calamities, it could not ne helped that physical distancing may not be observed in our evacuation centers. And we expect that there will be increases on our COVID-19 cases,” Galvez said.
On the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine, Galvez said none of the vaccines being developed in other countries have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Ambassador to Russia Carlos Sorreta said vaccines being developed there are showing good results with no adverse effects recorded among the individuals who are part of the clinical trial or who had received one to two doses under an emergency scheme.
Sorreta reiterated that Russia is willing to supply the country with the vaccine once it is approved and allowed by the FDA, including putting up establishments for the production of the vaccine in the country.
The Department of Foreign Affairs reported six new COVID cases among overseas Filipinos, bringing the total number of infections to 11,528. The DFA also reported one new death and a total death toll of 831.
Of the 831 deaths, 546 occurred in the Middle East and African regions, 179 in the Americas, 97 in Europe and 9 in the Asia Pacific region.
The Middle East and Africa also topped the other regions in terms of cases among overseas Filipinos with 7,518, followed by Asia and the Pacific and Europe with 1,872 and 1,309 respectively.
The Americas reported 829 cases.
The DFA also reported two new recoveries, bringing the number of survivors to 7, 463.
The DFA also said more than 254,000 overseas Filipinos have been repatriated to the country since it began its COVID-19 related repatriation efforts early this year.
Included in the 254,785 repatriated Filipinos were 8,831 brought home just last week, the DFA said. — With Ashzel Hachero
Of the 8,831, 87 percent or 7,715 came from the Middle East, 611 from Asia and the Pacific, 503 from Europe and 2 from the Americas.
The DFA also started this week the repatriation of around 370 Filipinos from Saudi Arabia and Timor Leste.
“We estimate that another 90,000 Filipinos will be repatriated by the end of the year,” the DFA said.
