New COVID-19 cases nears 20,000

June 4, 2020

The Philippines' new COVID-19 cases neared 20,000 on Wednesday, the Department of Health (DOH).

The DOH said 751 cases were reported, bringing the total to 19, 748. Out of the new cases, 221 are ''fresh cases'' and 530, ''late cases''.

"Fresh cases" are results released to a patient within the last three days while "late cases" are released to a patient after more than four days.

Eight deaths were reported, raising the total to 974 .

Ninety cases of recoveries were recorded, resulting in a total of 4,153 patients which recovered from COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) Wednesday announced the new rate of its benefit package for COVID-19 testing.

Under the new package rate approved by the PhilHealth Board of Directors, the amount will be P3,409 if all services for testing are procured and provided by the testing laboratory; P2,077 if the test kits are donated to the testing laboratory; and P901 if the test kits are donated to the testing laboratory, with cost of running the laboratory and RT-PCR machine for testing is included in the facility budget.

"The adjustment resulted from its continuing consultation with stakeholders and infectious disease experts, increased availability and affordability of testing kits in the market, and increased number of qualified facilities to do SARS-CoV-2 testing," said PhilHealth in a statement.  DMS