The number of patients who recovered from COVID-19 in the country continues to increase at 654 as the Department of Health (DOH) reported 41 new recoveries.
The health department also updated that the total number of cases has now reached 6, 599 as 140 new cases were recorded. Nine cases were also added to the death toll which is now at 437.
Amid the smaller number of recorded cases today, the DOH shared the observation of experts on the slower doubling time of COVID-19 in the country. “Kung dati, sa loob ng tatlong araw, dumodoble ang mga kaso, ngayon mas matagal na ito. Halos limang araw na ang average. Ito ay malaking improvement. Pero siempre mas gusto natin na mahigit sa tatlumpung araw ang ating doubling time. (Back then, the cases doubled within three days. Now, it has slowed down to almost a five-day average. This is a big improvement. But we want a doubling time to be more than 30 days),” DOH USec. Maria Rosario Vergeire explained.
The DOH said most of the cases are still from the National Capital Region (NCR), while 30 provinces have no COVID-19 cases or have a slower increase in the number of cases.
Meanwhile, the DOH confirmed 43 of the RITM’s staff have tested positive for COVID-19, and added the RITM would scale down operations to give way to disinfection and personnel testing until April 24.