The Philippines coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases rose to 354,338 on Saturday after the Department of Health reported 2,673 new infections.
The DOH also announced that 539 more patients have also recovered from the illness, bringing the total to 295,312, while the death toll climbed to 6,603 with 73 new ones.
Among the new deaths, 49 occurred in October, three in September, 18 in August, two in July, and one in May.
Meanwhile, the government has hired 35,345 people so far as contact tracers as the recruitment is expected to end next week, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said.
Interviewed at the Laging Handa public briefing, DILG spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said 27,879 of those hired were already trained and deployed in the different local government units in the country.
Further, 65,000 people have applied, of whom 57,743 have been processed.
According to the DOH, the top regions with cases in the past 14 days are the National Capital Region with 646 or 28 percent, Region 4A with 603 or 26 percent, and Region 3 with 213 or nine percent.
Eighty-six percent or 2,286, meanwhile, acquired the virus in the past 14 days. A total of 85 cases were also removed from the total case count.
Of the 52,423 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine, 84.7 percent are mild, 11 percent are asymptomatic, 1.5 percent are severe, and 2.9 percent are in critical condition.
The DOH said 14 laboratories were unable to submit their data.
At present, the country has 147 licensed laboratories that have tested over 4 million individuals.
Some 47 percent of the country’s intensive care unit beds are occupied while 22 percent of the mechanical ventilators are in use.
More than 39.07 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,099,592 have died.