MANILA, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 47,873 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,540 new cases on Tuesday.
The DOH said that the number of recoveries further rose to 12,386 after 201 more patients have survived the disease.
The death toll also increased to 1,309 after six more patients have succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH said.
According to the DOH, 619 of the daily reported cases were in Metro Manila, 174 cases in the Central Visayas region in the central Philippines and 747 cases were reported in other parts of the country.
The Philippines has been witnessing rapid increase in confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past several days.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH expects the number of confirmed cases to increase in the coming days due to clustering and community transmission, not improved testing anymore.
"These numbers that we are having right now should make people more cautious. This is not just because we are testing more but because there are really clustering of cases that we have been identifying for these past days," Vergeire said.
"There is really community transmission. This is not just because we are testing more, but this is really a result of community transmission," she further said. Enditem
