The Philippines on April 2 tallied over 15,000 new COVID-19 cases, a new all-time high in a single day, ahead of a scheduled Inter-Agency Task Force meeting on whether or not to extend the enhanced community quarantine past April 4.
The Department of Health reported 15,310 new COVID-19 cases, of which 3,709 were supposed to be included in the March 31 tally. Even without the backlogs, the number of cases would still be a record-high of 11,601 in a single day.
Seventeen new deaths were reported, bringing the total to 13,320. There were 434 new recoveries, pushing the total to 604,368 since the start of the pandemic.
Overall, the Philippines currently has 153,809 active COVID-19 cases. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has tallied a total of 771,497 COVID-19 cases.
The Inter-Agency Task Force is scheduled to meet on Black Saturday to decide whether or not the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, and Rizal would be extended beyond Easter Sunday.
The ECQ in the so-called "NCR+ bubble" requires most of the 24 million people in the country's economic hub to stay indoors, except when buying food and medicine and for limited on-site work.
New infections, blamed on virus variants, have pushed daily case loads past the 2020 peaks. Hospitals are getting overwhelmed, putting pressure on the government to speed up its vaccination program.
Hey, Spotters! Check us out on Viber to join our Community and subscribe to our Chatbot.
this strange new world.