The Philippines’ tally of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases increased  to 143,749 on Wednesday after the Department of Health (DOH) announced 4,444 new infections.

Of the 4,444,  3,049 were fresh, and  1,395 late cases.

The five provinces with the highest number of new cases were Metro Manila with 2,618, Laguna with 233, Cavite with 227, Rizal with 174, and Bulacan with 129.

“Of the 4,444 reported cases today, 3,294 (74%) cases occurred within the recent 14 days (July 30-August 12, 2020). The top regions with cases from the recent two weeks were from NCR (1,855 or 57%), Region 4A (580 or 18%), and Region 3 (190 or 6%),” said DOH COVID-19 Case Bulletin  #151.

Total recoveries also rose to 68,997 after 636 more patients recovered from the respiratory disease, while the death toll climbed to 2,404 with 93 new fatalities.

Of the 93 deaths, 13 (14%) in August, 49 (53%) in July, 30 (32%) in June, and 1 (1%) in May. Deaths were from Region 7 (67 or 72%), NCR(16 or 17%), Region 9 (3 or 3%), Region 6 (2 or 2%), Region 5 (2 or 2%), Region 11 (2 or 2%), and Region 4A (1 or 2%).

There are also 72,348 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, 91.3 percent of which are mild, 7.3 percent are asymptomatic, 0.6 percent are severe, and 0.7 percent are in critical condition.

The DOH said figures reported on Wednesday were based on data submitted by 91 out of the 100 operational laboratories.

As of August 11, the Philippines had 105 licensed laboratories that had tested a total of 1,726,148 individuals while 55 percent of intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients nationwide were occupied and 30 percent of mechanical ventilators were in use.

There were 231 duplicates that were removed from the total case count. Of these, nine recovered cases and one death have been removed.

In addition, two cases were found to be negative and were removed from the total case count after final validation. Moreover, they  updated the health status of the 62 cases that were previously reported as recovered but after final validation, they were 60 deaths and two active cases.

These numbers undergo constant cleaning and validation, the DOH said./Stacy Ang