COVID-19 infections in Philippines exceed 2,300, deaths climb to 96
MANILA, Philippines (Update 1, 5:15 p.m.) — The number of new coronavirus infections in the Philippines shot up again on Wednesday after health authorities reported 227 additional cases.
The number of new infections on Wednesday was lower than the record 538 cases reported on Tuesday.
But in a matter of months, the new coronavirus has infected 2,311 people in the Philippines in a crisis overwhelming hospitals across the archipelago and upending the lives of Filipinos ordered to stay home under lockdowns.
Eight more people have died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) raising the national death toll to 96, the Department of Health said.
Patient 692, 89th fatality
- 80-year-old Filipino male from San Juan City with no travel history
- Died on March 30 due to pneumonia high risk, COVID-19
Patient 1723, 90th fatality
- 70-year-old Filipino male from Cebu City with unknown travel and exposure history
- Died on March 28, confirmed positive for COVID-19 on the same day
- Died due to respiratory distress syndrome with multiple organ failure secondary to COVID-19 infection
Patient 1039, 91st fatality
- 84-year-old Filipino male from Mandaluyong City with no travel history
- Died on March 28 due to pneumonia, COVID-19
Patient 621, 92nd fatality
- 77-year-old Filipino male from Manila with no travel history
- Died on March 29 due to septic shock, COVID-19 pneumonia
Patient 1811, 93rd fatality
- 66-year-old Filipino male from Parañaque City with unknown travel history
- Died on March 23 but was only confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 28
- Died due to acute respiratory failure, community-acquired pneumonia
Patient 1089, 94th fatality
- 65-year-old Filipino female from Quezon City with no travel history
- Died on March 22 but was only confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 27
- Died due to acute respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia high risk
Patient 1299, 95th fatality
- 73-year-old Filipino male from Pasig City with unknown travel history
- Died on March 21 but was only confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 25
- Died due to acute respiratory failure, severe acute respiratory disease syndrome, high risk pneumonia secondary to viral COVID-19, septic shock
Patient 415, 96th fatality
- 79-year-old Filipino female from Makati City with unknown travel history
- Died on March 28 due to ARDS secondary to pneumonia high risk, COVID-19 infection
Only one recovery was reported on Wednesday: a 59-year-old Filipino male from Taguig City. He was discharged on March 29 asymptomatic with two negative results.
In total, only 50 patients have recovered from the illness.
Currently, there are no vaccines and specific antiviral medicines to prevent or treat COVID-19. But the World Health Organization stressed those infected with the new coronavirus should receive care to relieve symptoms.
There are additional 1,101 patients under investigation and 6,321 persons under monitoring.
DOH has been working to increase its capacity for testing and subnational testing laboratories are already being set up across the country. The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine can now process 1,000 tests each day, while subnational laboratories can process 160 a day.
Since late January, 4,344 people have been tested.
‘Worst’ crisis since WW2
The United Nations on Tuesday said the coronavirus pandemic is the “most challenging” crisis the world has faced since World War II.
“A stronger and more effective response… is only possible in solidarity if everybody comes together and if we forget political games and understand that it is humankind that is at stake,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.
More than 857,000 people have been infected—over 42,000 of whom have been killed—as the contagion spreads across the globe.
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
- Latest
- Trending
