PH now has most COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia

MANILA, Philippines — With 119,460 total infections, the Philippines now has the most coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Southeast Asia.

On Thursday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 3,561 new COVID-19 cases, putting the country ahead of Indonesia in terms of total COVID-19 cases in the region.

Indonesia’s Health Ministry announced 1,882 new infections, bringing its total COVID-19 caseload to 118,753, the Jakarta Post reported.

Metro Manila, the epicenter of the outbreak in the country, accounts for more than half or 2,041 of the Philippines’ new cases.

The country’s total fatality increased to 2,150 with the addition of 28 new deaths. Meanwhile, the recoveries also rose to 66,837 after 569 more people were able to defeat the infectious disease.

The capital region, along with the provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, and Bulacan has been reverted to the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Aug. 4 to 18 to give medical frontliners a “timeout” to recuperate from exhaustion in battling the pandemic and to provide the government time to “regroup” and beef up its COVID-19 response.

According to the Philippines’ Testing Czar Vince Dizon, the rise in the number of coronavirus cases was due to the country’s ramped up testing efforts.

READ: PH looming as SEA’s COVID-19 epicenter? It’s speculative, says testing czar 

The DOH echoed this, pointing out that as of Aug. 4, a total of 1,643,539 people have been tested for COVID-19 with an average of 28,938 tests per day within the last seven days.

According to the DOH, this is significantly higher than Indonesia’s record of having tested a total of 908,000 individuals as of Aug. 4 and having a testing average of 14,29 per day within the seven days. [ac]

READ: PH has highest COVID-19 testing capacity in SE Asia — DOH