The total number of people in the Philippines infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has reached 70,764, the  Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday.

Based on data from 73 out of 89 COVID-19 labs, an additional 1,951 cases was added on Tuesday, bringing the total number of active cases or those who have yet to recover to 45,646.

Majority or 1,464 of the additional cases are from the National Capital Region, 90 from Cebu province, 74 from Laguna, 53 from Cavite and 36 from Rizal.

This is the 6th straight day that NCR logged more than 1,000 additional COVID-19 cases.

The DOH also reported 209 additional recovered patients, bringing the total number of recoveries to 23,281.

There were also 2 additional COVID-related deaths — the lowest since March 24 — or a total of 1,837 fatalities.

“Of the 2 deaths, 1 (50%) in July and 1 (50%) in June. Deaths were from Region 7 (1 or 50%) and Region 6 (1 or 50%),” the DOH said in an advisory.

Of the active cases, 91.1% have mild symptoms, 8% are asymptomatic, 0.4% have severe symptoms and 0.5% are in critical condition.

The DOH said 85 duplicate cases were removed from the previous total case count.

“These numbers undergo constant cleaning and validation,” it added.

Researchers from the University of the Philippines earlier projected that the country would reach 60,000 total cases by the end of July.

The UP group raised their projection to 85,000, based on current trends./Stacy Ang