(Eagle News) — The number of confirmed coronavirus cases kept rising with the addition of 84 COVID-19 positive patients bringing the country’s total to 636, as of Wednesday, March 25, 2020.
The numbers were added to the previous day’s report of 552 cases, according to the Department of Health.
The DOH is also monitoring 9,000 people nationwide for possible COVID-19 infection. They include around 6,000 persons under monitoring (PUMs) and 2,800 persons under investigation (PUIs).
Health Assistant Secretary Dra. Maria Rosario Vergeire said that sudden spike in cases was due to the expanded COVID-19 testing now being done by the Philippine government.
There are now more testing centers and more testing kits for the coronavirus with the arrival of detection kits from China and other countries. The Food and Drug Administration had also approved 10 brands of detection kits from abroad for commercial use in the Philippines.
-Total COVID-19 deaths at 38-
The DOH said that three additional deaths were also added on Wednesday, in its update at 4 p.m., bringing the number of total deaths due to COVID-19 at 38.
One of them is the 82-year old Filipino female from Marikina City who had travel history to the US. She is known as patient no. 29 (PH29) and has known exposure to another COVID-19 case. She died on March 23.
The two others are a 56-year old Filipino male from Quezon City and a 57-year old Filipino male from Caloocan City. Both have no travel nor exposure history.
–Total PHL recoveries rise to 26-
The department also added six new patient recoveries, five of whom came from Metro Manila and the other one from Batangas. This brings the total number of recoveries from COVID-19 to 26. Two of them had travel history to Taiwan, while another had travelled to Italy. Two others had no travel and exposure history, while one had been exposed to a COVID-19 patient.
The patients who recovered are the following:
– a 57-year old Filipino male from Quezon City with travel history from Taiwan who had already been tested negative twice and discharged from the hospital on March 23. He is known as patient 10 (PH10);
– a 41-year old Filipino male from Pasig City (known as PH18) with travel history from Taiwan. He was discharged on March 24 after testing negative twice;
– a 66-year old Filipino male from Quezon City (PH82) with no travel and exposure history. He was discharged on March 24 after a negative test result, and is already asymptomatic;
– a 28-year old Filipino female from San Juan City (PH31) with exposure to a COVID-case. She was discharged on March 22 after testing negative and being asymptomatic.
– a 30-year old Filipino female from San Juan City (PH23) with no travel and exposure history. She was discharged on March 24 after two negative test results; and
– a 64-year old Filipino female (PH95) from Batangas with travel history from Italy who was discharged on March 24 after two negative test results.
(Eagle News Service)
