The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday reported the highest number of daily cases for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) at 3,045 just as the government was rolling out with much fanfare its vaccination drive against the virus.

Friday’s 3,045 cases brings to 40,074 the number of active Covid-19 cases in the country. The DOH noted that daily Covid-19 cases reported in recent months was about 1,000 and climbed to approximately 2,000 daily in recent days.

With the 3,045 Covid-19 cases recorded on Friday, the Philippines now has 587,704 cases of the virus also counting deaths and recoveries.

Another 178 Covid-19 patients recovered, bringing the tally of recoveries to 535,207. Nineteen fatalities were recorded on Friday by the DOH, bringing total deaths from the virus to 12,423.

According to the DOH, the active cases comprise 6.8 percent of the total tally, while recoveries and deaths comprise 91.1 percent and 2.11 percent, respectively. Eight duplicate entries, including five recoveries, were removed from the case count.

The DOH did not give any reason for the increase in Covid-19 cases in the past few days and on Friday, but it reported an additional 52 new cases of the B.1.351 variant of the virus from South Africa, bringing the total number of cases of the said variant in the country to 58.

In addition, there were 31 new cases of the Covid-19 variant from the United Kingdom, bringing for the variant in the Philippines to 118.

The South African and UK Covid-19 variants are beleived to be more infectious.