The Department of Health  (DOH) on Friday reported 661 additional COVID-19 cases or a total of 28,459 confirmed cases in the country.

This,  after  two weeks since quarantine restrictions were eased.

Of the additional cases, 460 are considered “fresh” while 201 are “late cases.”

The DOH said “fresh” cases refer to those whose test results were released within the last 3 days, while “late” cases are those whose results were released four days ago or earlier.

Of the fresh cases, 277 are from the National Capital Region while only 21 are from Region 7 or Central Visayas, which has seen a spike in cases in recent weeks.

A total of 162 are tagged to have come from “others,” which could refer to other regions or the fact that the patient does not have any location data.

Of the late cases, 40 are from NCR and 103 are from Region 7, while 58 are tagged as coming from “others.”

NCR and Region 7 have been reporting higher numbers of new cases in the past weeks. The DOH earlier said it sent epidemiologists to Cebu City, the epicenter of the outbreak in Region 7, to study how the virus has spread there.

The DOH also logged 288 new recovered patients or a total of 7,378 recoveries since the pandemic started.

The DOH said there were also 14 new coronavirus-related deaths or a total of 1,130 fatalities since the virus reached the country earlier this year.

Twelve of these new deaths happened during the first two weeks of June (June 4 to 14). The others are presumed to have happened in previous months.

In its case bulletin, the DOH also noted that it removed one patient from its total case count./Stacy Ang