Philippines hits 2 million Covid-19 infections amid worst wave yet

Bangkok, Sep 1 (EFE).- The Philippines surpassed 2 million Covid-19 cases Wednesday in middle of its worst wave of infections, straining the health system due to the diseases’ delta variant, the most contagious mutation yet.

The Health Ministry’s Twitter account reported 14,216 new cases – raising the total to more than 2 million cases – and 86 deaths totalling 33,533.

There are 140,949 active cases in the country, of which 96.1 percent have mild symptoms, 1.2 percent are severe, 1.1 percent are asymptomatic, 1.03 percent have moderate symptoms and 0.6 percent are in critical condition.

The Philippines, with 111 million inhabitants, is the second country with the highest number of infections in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, which exceeds 4 million.

On Aug. 6, authorities imposed a third confinement on metropolitan Manila’s 13 million inhabitants, barring them from leaving other than for hospital or grocery trips.

The capital, which is the country’s pandemic epicenter, has endured one of the world’s longest lockdowns.

It was under strict confinement between March 2020 and August 2020, when some measures were relaxed, and again between March and April, when the 15,000 new daily infections were exceeded.

The Philippines is one of the places that exports the most health workers to the rest of the world, but in the country, professionals in the sector denounce a lack of personnel and means to face the pandemic.

Health workers demonstrated Monday in front of Santo Tomas University Hospital to demand that the government disburse payments and extras it owes and criticize the authorities’ management of the pandemic.

The vaccination campaign is lagging behind the official program, which aims to immunize 70 million people before the end of the year. To date, full dosage has been administered to about 13.7 million (12 percent of the population). EFE

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