DOH Logs Record-High 7,999 New COVID-19 Cases in a Day

7,999 new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases were recorded anew by the Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday, March 20, marking the highest daily tally of new cases of the virus in the country.

Today’s new COVID-19 cases tally was higher than on Friday, where 7,103 new cases were tallied.

Recorded active cases in the country also once again breached the 80,000 mark, as the tallied active cases as of March 20 are 80,462–the second highest active cases mark since August 15, 2020, when the COVID-19 active cases in the country was recorded at 83,109 cases.

Vaccine optimism

In an online media briefing on Friday, WHO representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe attributes the surge of COVID-19 cases in part due to “vaccine optimism,” where in the optimism of Filipinos grew as vaccines started arriving in the country, thus may have led to the public lowering their guard and compliance with the health protocols set to protect everyone from the virus.

Abeyasinghe also noted that transmissions are made possible due to the more relaxed quarantine measure in the country that allowed Filipinos into “mingling more, going out more,” and that the arrival of vaccines in the country sparked optimism in the public that they are seeing “light in the end of the tunnel,” in the fight against COVID-19.

He further added that vaccine optimism is a “phenomenon” also observed in other countries.

Abeyasinghe said that though inconclusive, they are still trying to understand the reason behind transmissions.

“This is inconclusive, but this is what we are trying to understand and explain what is driving this transmission,” he said, via CNN.

New Variants

New variants of COVID-19 has also been noted as 114 new cases of COVID-19 variants were reported by DOH.

Of this 114 new cases, 46 are the B117 or the UK variant, another 62 cases are the B1351 or the South African variant, and 6 new cases of the P3 variant, found in the Philippines. (GFB)