PH COVID-19 breaks 65,000 cases mark

The Philippines on Saturday recorded 2,357 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, marking its fourth highest single-day spike since the pandemic began.

The additional cases raised the nationwide total to 65,304, of which 41,464 are considered active. Some 90 percent of them are considered mild illness.

Of the newly announced cases, 1,824 came from Metro Manila, 105 from Laguna, 62 from Cavite, 49 from Cebu and 39 from Rizal, the Department of Health (DOH) said in its latest bulletin.

Official figures also showed the number of people who were given a clean bill of health climbed by 321 to 22,067.

The health ministry also reported 113 new fatalities from the contagious disease, bringing the death toll to 1,773. This is the country's second-largest increase in COVID-19 deaths since 162 fatalities reported in July 12.

Worldwide, the novel coronavirus, which was first detected in Wuhan City in China's Hubei province, has infected 14 million people and claimed more than 602,000 lives, a running tally from the US-based Johns Hopkins University showed.