Nearly 300 new cases of the coronavirus have been recorded in the Philippines, the Department of Health said on Thursday, April 30.
The department announced 276 new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the country, bringing the official count to 8,488.
Ten new deaths were also reported, raising the death toll to 568. Meanwhile, the 20 new recoveries brought the tally of recovered patients to 1,043.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire noted that 1,619 healthcare workers have tested positive for the virus.
Of the infected, 604 are physicians or doctors, 557 are nurses, 99 are nursing assistants, 63 are medical technologists, 31 are radiologic technologists, 17 are respiratory therapists, 18 are midwives, 13 pharmacists and 217 are other healthcare workers like dentists, barangay healthcare workers, and administrative aides.
Vergeire also said that 33 medical workers have died due to COVID-19, of which 24 are physicians, and seven are nurses.
According to her, 92,822 total unique individual tests have been conducted by the COVID-19 testing laboratories nationwide.
“At 82,438 o 89 percent dito ay nagtala ng negative results, samantalang 10,245 o 11 percent naman ang nagtala ng positibong results. Muli, lilinawin lang po namin na ang total positive tests ay maaaring mas mataas sa total confirmed cases dahil ito ay dumadaan pa rin sa case validation and processing (about 82,438 or 89 percent here yielded negative results, while 10,245 or 11 percent yielded positive results. We just want to clarify that the total positive tests are higher than the total confirmed cases because they still go through case validation and processing),” Vergeire said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs recorded 33 new cases of COVID-19 among Filipinos abroad, bringing the total to 1,677 infections.
“The WHO Situation Report as of yesterday, records Europe and Americas, both home to most of our OFWs, as the two regions with the highest total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the globe,” said DFA Assistant Secretary Eduardo Meñez.
Of the number, 367 cases were recorded from the Asia Pacific region, at least 483 in Europe, 356 in the Middle East/Africa, and 471 in the American region.
The agency also reported that 17 Filipinos recovered, bringing the tally to 451 — higher than the death toll, which is at 201.
