With 119,460 infections, Philippines overtakes Indonesia for most COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:09 p.m.) — The Philippines saw another spike in new coronavirus infections Thursday to take its total to 119,460, overtaking Indonesia as the worst-hit country in Southeast Asia.
The Department of Health reported 3,561 additional infections to take the national caseload ahead of Indonesia’s 118,753 cases as of Thursday, according to its health ministry. Manila has been reporting more daily cases than Jakarta for a time now.
Outbreak epicenter Metro Manila, which returned to a tougher lockdown, was responsible for 57% or 2,041 of the newly-reported cases. Meanwhile, Laguna had 222 additional cases, Cebu had 221, Cavite had 100 and Rizal had 81.
The number of cases has grown exponentially since the government eased movement restrictions in June. Government officials attributed this to the country’s beefed-up coronavirus testing efforts.
Two days ago, the Philippines logged record-high 6,352 additional infections.
Currently, there are 50,473 active cases or patients who are currently ill in the country. Around 91% of the active cases are mild, while around 8% are asymptomatic.
The DOH also reported that 569 more patients had recovered, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 66,837. Total recoveries accounted for around 56% of the confirmed cases.
The death toll, however, rose to 2,150 with the deaths of 28 more patients. Indonesia’s fatality count, meanwhile, stood at 5,452—the highest in the region.
Some 1.546 million individuals have been so far tested in the country. According to the DOH, the country’s daily testing average within the last seven days was at 28,938.
The Philippines becoming the Southeast Asia's new virus hotspot came as the country officially entered a recession in the second quarter. Gross domestic product plunged 16.5% year-on-year from April to June, marking worst economic performance under democratic rule.
President Rodrigo Duterte placed Metro Manila and neighboring provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna under modified enhanced community quarantine until August 18.
Global infections passed reached at least 18.72 million, with more than 706,000 deaths since the virus emerged in China late last year.
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
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