Philippines logs record over 10K COVID-19 cases

ANKARA

The Philippines on Monday registered a record 10,016 new coronavirus cases, pushing the total caseload to 731,894, the health department said.

It is the first time that the daily number of COVID-19 cases has risen to over 10,000 in the archipelago country.

Of the total cases, 15.8% (115,495) are active, while 82.4% (603,213) have recovered, and 1.80% (13,186) died.

Philippines began its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on March 1, a day after receiving 600,000 doses from China as a gift.

Over 500,000 people have been vaccinated so far, according to Our World In Data, a tracking website.

Meanwhile, the island nation received the first tranche of 1 million CoronaVac vaccine doses out of the total 25 million doses procured by the national government from Sinovac, said the National Task Force Against COVID-19 in a statement.

President Rodrigo Duterte, among other officials, received the vaccines at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City.

"We are expecting the delivery of around 1.5 to 4 million of the remaining procured doses from Sinovac by April and May 2021 together with 979,200 AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the WHO-led COVAX facility," said vaccine head Carlito G. Galvez. "These will allow the country to expand coverage of our vaccination program further."

Health Secretary Fransisco T. Duque said after vaccinating healthcare frontline workers, the program would be extended to vulnerable Filipinos or those with pre-existing conditions and comorbidities.