FOR three consecutive days, the Department of Health (DOH) has recorded over 20,000 new Covid-19 cases. The total number of infections in the country on Sunday stood at 2,080,984.
As 4 p.m. of September 5, 2021, a total of 20,019 additional cases, 20,089 recoveries, and 173 deaths were logged by the DOH.
Of the total number of infections, 7.6 percent (157,438) are active, 90.8 percent (1,889,312) have recovered, and 1.65 percent (34,234) have died.
There were 119 duplicates removed from the total case count. Of these, 95 are recoveries and 1 is a death.
Moreover, 58 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
All laboratories were operational on September 3, 2021 but five laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
Based on data in the last 14 days, the five non-reporting laboratories contribute, on average, 0.9 percent of samples tested and 1.2 percent of positive individuals.
Cheaper RT-PCR tests
Meanwhile, the government will save P5 million a day after the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) started to reduce the prices of their RT-PCR test for swab and saliva on September 4, 2021.
“The Government will save P5 million a day once we reduce the prices of the RT-PCR Tests,” said PRC Chairman and CEO Sen. Richard Gordon.
The country’s premier humanitarian organization slashed the amount of their RT-PCR testing by at least 25 percent for both swab and saliva tests. From P3,800 to P2,800 for a swab test and P2,000 to P1,500 for a saliva test.
The Philippine government through Philippine Health Insurance Corp. shoulders the testing fees for local government units, overseas Filipino workers, and health-care workers.
Averaging 8,000 tests a day, the PRC has already tested 4,074,794 swab and saliva samples since the pandemic began, almost 25 percent of the entire tests conducted in the Philippines.
The PRC has 13 operational molecular laboratories nationwide with another opening in Cotabato soon.
The date of the new PRC swab and saliva testing prices implementation coincides with the birthday of Gordon’s mother, Amelia Juico Gordon, who founded and chaired Olongapo City’s Red Cross for 28-years.