Health officials reported 2,110 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday, bringing total infections to 80,448.
The total number of cases is just a little less than 4,600 short of the 85,000 cases estimate of UP experts by August 1.
The UP forecast represents a danger level as it will place Metro Manila under tighter lockdown protocols, raising the level from General Community Quarantine to Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine.
As of Sunday, Metro Manila had the most number of new cases at 1,345, followed by Cebu province with 304, Laguan with 109, Negros Occidental with 66 and Rizal with 40.
The Department of Health said there were 39 more deaths, bringing total fatalities to 1,932.
READ: As cases surge, MECQ for NCR pushed
On the other hand, 382 new recoveries were reported, bring the total number of patients who recovered from COVID-19 TO 26,110.
This left 52,406 active cases in which patients were being treated or placed under quarantine.
Of these cases, 89.83 percent were mild, 9.25 percent were asymptomatic, 0.49 percent were severe and 0.42 percent were critical.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), meanwhile, said more than 102,000 Filipinos abroad have been repatriated since the Philippines recognized the public emergency arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
These consisted of 43,893 sea-based Filipinos (42.8 percent) and 58,626 land-based Filipinos (57.2 percent) who were stranded or lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
Last week alone, 12,022 overseas Filipinos were brought home from the Netherlands, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
In the House, a lawmaker called on senators to pass three measures that would help Filipinos adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte was referring to House Bill (HB) 6864 prescribing a ‘whole-of-society’ approach to strict mandatory safety and physical distancing protocols, HB 1248 on e-government and HB 1297 authorizing cash agents to help serve the banking needs of people in faraway villages without banks.
“Our senators could help Filipinos best adapt to the new world order by passing their own versions of these three House-approved measures, more so now when the World Health Organization (WHO) itself is bracing for a protracted pandemic and has called on countries to safeguard against what it called ‘a new and dangerous phase’ of the COVID-19 contagion,” said Villafuerte.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier there will be no return to the “old normal” for the foreseeable future, as the world is now in “a new and dangerous phase” with countries starting to reopen their societies and economies even as the virus is still spreading fast.
For Tedros, the pandemic has already changed the way people live their lives and that part of adjusting is “finding ways to live our lives safely.”
Villafuerte said that these three measures acted upon by the House before the Congress adjourned sine die last June 5 would equip Filipinos to live their lives safely over the next year at the least, when a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 is not expected to be developed yet for commercial production and sale.
