The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed Tuesday that coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country ballooned to 500.
In a text message, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that there are now 501 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19. The death toll remains at 33 while 19 people have recovered.
In a media briefing, Vergeire said that they are expecting the number of cases to go up as the health department ramped up its testing capacities in addition to new laboratories being set up in the coming days.
She explained that DOH is currently detecting more cases because of the availability of more testing kits.
Some 100,000 testing kits were donated from China. More testing kits will be arriving from South Korea, Brunei and Singapore.
