The Department of Health (DOH) recorded over 5,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, March 18.
The DOH said that there were 5,290 confirmed new cases bringing the overall total to 640,984. There are now 66,567 active cases in the country.
Meanwhile, 21 new fatalities have been reported bringing the death toll to 12,887.
Recoveries are now at 561,530 after 439 individuals have recovered.
Despite record-breaking new COVID-19 cases, Malacanang said that the government is not keen on imposing another nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus.
In his press briefing earlier this week, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that a new lockdown needs a delicate balancing act.
“Going on a total lockdown is difficult. There are many more who are suffering due to the lockdown than those who get seriously ill due to COVID-19,” Roque said.
“If the number of cases rises and most of them are mild and asymptomatic, we should not close the economy if we have enough capacity to treat those who get seriously ill,” he added.
The DOH said that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country may increase 28 times more after a month if the current variants of concern will become more dominant.
Dr. Alethea de Guzman, OIC Director III of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, said that as of now, only 6.6 percent of total sequenced samples in the country were confirmed to be cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the United Kingdom and the B.1.351 variant from South Africa.
If these become the dominant variants, cases will increase by 28 times instead of just three times after a month,” De Guzman said in a forum.
“Ayaw natin umabot sa punto na lahat ng samples na nasesequence natin ay mga variants of concern. Kapag ganun po ang nakikita nating pagtaas, hindi lamang three times, four times, pwedeng up to 28 times ‘yung increase na makita natin and that will truly overwhelm our health system,” she added.
