Philippines Tallies 13,573 More Cases Halfway Through MECQ

The Philippines, battling the hyper-contagious Delta variant, tallied 13,573 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

This brought the total active cases to 125,378 and the cumululative total since the pandemic began to 1,883,088.

There were 15,820 recoveries and 228 deaths recorded, bumping the totals up to 1,725,218 and 32,492 respectively.

Metro Manila and other high-risk areas are under MECQ, which is expected to end on Aug. 31. Cases are seen to rise in the coming days or weeks due to the Delta variant even as vaccinations continue, Health Usec. Rosario Vergeire earlier said. It may take as long as two weeks to fully see the effects of the strictest ECQ imposed midway through August.

Dine-in services and non-essential travel are still prohibited to arrest the spread of the virus. Cities in the capital region nearing their vaccination targets have opened up inoculation to non-residents, an effort to meet the national government's goal of 50 million Filipinos vaccinated by the end of the year.