In what may look like a prophecy of doom coming true, the number of daily cases for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) reached the 5,000-mark on Saturday, which is the highest for this year.

The rise in Covid-19 cases in the past few days comes after the Department of Health (DOH) said that new variants of the virus have entered the Philippines, including the UK and Brazil variants. Also, Octa Research has been warning of a spike in nationwide Covid-19 cases that can be caused by the new variants, among others.

The DOH said that it tallied 5,000 new cases of Covid-19 infections on Saturday, placing the total number of cases nationwide since the virus outbreak one year ago at 616,611. Saturday’s tally was also the highest since the 5,277 Covid-19 cases recorded on August 6, 2020.

The total number of active cases was placed at 56,679, of which 92.3 percent was mild, 4.3 percent was asymptomatic, 1.4 percent was critical, 1.4 percent was severe and 0.66 percent was moderate.

If there is any consolation, the DOH reported 281 additional recoveries that is much bigger than the 72 deaths on Saturday. The total number of recoveries has reached 547,166 and deaths, 12,766.

On bed capacity, some 1,026 or about 54 percent of the total 1,900 intensive care unit beds dedicated to Covid-19 patients are still available.

Also unoccupied are 62 percent of the 13,500 isolation beds and 71 percent of the 6,000 ward beds for these patients.