Coronavirus cases almost 433,000; Ilocos Norte highest

THE DEPARTMENT of Health (DoH) reported 1,298 coronavirus infections on Tuesday, bringing the total to 432,925.

The death toll rose by 27 to 8,418 while recoveries increased by 135 to 398,782, it said in a bulletin.

There were 25,725 active cases, 84% of which were mild, 7.4% did not show symptoms, 5.4% were critical, 2.9% were severe, and 0.30% were moderate.

Ilocos Norte reported the highest number of new cases at 84, followed by the city of Manila at 61, Quezon province at 55, Laguna at 50, and Negros Occidental at 47. The DoH said three duplicates were removed from the total case count while nine recovered cases were reclassified as deaths. One case reported as death was validated as an active case.

About 63.6 million have been infected and about 1.5 million people died of coronavirus worldwide, according to the Worldometers website, citing various sources including data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

About 44 million people have recovered.

Meanwhile, Philippine Foundation for Vaccination Executive Director Lulu C. Bravo said the government should address the vaccine hesitancy of Filipinos.

In a briefing on Tuesday, Ms. Bravo said while vaccines are not 100% safe, the benefits still outweigh the risks.

“It is important that we assure our people that if the vaccines are approved and released by the Food and Drug Administration, there are certain safety mechanisms in place. So, the benefits that you will get from that vaccine will far outweigh the risk,” she said.

The government plans to vaccinate 60 million Filipinos by 2023. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas and Gil lian M. Cortez