The Department of Health reported 4,973 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, May 24.
The new confirmed cases bring the country’s total to 1,184, 706 cases. Six laboratories failed to report on time.
Based on the latest DOH bulletin 48,917 are considered active or those people currently infected by the virus.
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The death toll is now at 19,983 after reporting 39 new fatalities.
Recoveries, meanwhile, climbed to 1,115,806 after 6,666 new patients recovered from the disease.
The Interior Department has warned that an India-like COVID-19 surge in the Philippines can happen if the public will continue to defy health protocols.
Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, also DILG spokesperson said that at least 50 people tested positive from the virus in various super spreader events in Quezon City.
“I’m pleading for discipline. Let’s exercise discipline,” Malaya said at an online briefing. “If we do not exercise discipline, we will have an India scenario especially with the variants from other parts of the world,” he said.
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Malaya said that the Philippine government has so far inoculated 4 million people. But the figure is relatively low compared to the target herd immunity of vaccinating 50 million people.
“It’s already a record but still far from herd protection. So from now until herd protection, we need to be very careful,” he said partly in Filipino,” he said.
“Otherwise we’re looking at an India scenario for the Philippines. We can no longer afford that because our economy contracted 4.5 percent at the beginning of the year,” he added.
Investigation is underway over superspreader events in Quezon City. Around 600 people were tested for the virus and 50 of them yielded positive results. (TDT)
