Total COVID-19 cases near 19,000

June 2, 2020

New coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases rose on Tuesday even as the Department of Health (DOH) said the country has managed to lower the number of people getting infected.

The DOH reported 359 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 18,997 cases.

Out of the newly-reported cases, a total of 176 are considered as "fresh cases" while 183 were tagged as  "late cases".

"Fresh cases" are defined as results released to patient within three days.

"Late cases" are results given to patient after more than four days.

Among the COVID-19 cases, six new deaths were reported, bringing the aggregate to 966.

There were 84 recoveries, raising the total to  4,063.

In a radio interview, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said: "Before, when the outbreak started, an infected person can infect 3 to 4 others. Now, we have brought down the transmission rate to only 1."

She said this is one of the reasons   case doubling time and mortality doubling time have improved.

She said mortality doubling time rose from six to seven days at the start of the pandemic to 10 to 15 days currently.

Vergeire said it proves imposing community quarantines have been effective.

"We just want to emphasize that the early community quarantine we imposed has this positive effect," said Vergeire. DMS