The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported 2,498 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infections, raising the overall tally to 61,266.

The DOH said the additional cases reported were based on the total tests done by 71 out of 84 operational laboratories.

The newly announced cases included 1,886 from the National Capital Region (NCR), 198 from Cebu, 57 from Cavite, 44 from Davao del Sur, and 44 from Laguna.

It also reported 467 new recoveries and 29 new deaths.

These figures bring the total number of recoveries to 21,440 and the total number of deaths to 1,643.

“Of the 29 deaths, eight or 28 percent in July, 19 or 66 percent in June, and 2 or 7 percent in May. Deaths were from Region 7 which is 16 or 55 percent, NCR which is 9 or 31 percent, Region 11 which is 3 or 10 percent and Caraga which is 1 or 3 percent. Eighty-two duplicates were removed from total case count. Of these, three duplicates previously reported as recovered have been removed from the total count of recoveries after final verification,” the DOH said.

It added the total cases reported may be subject to change as these numbers undergo constant cleaning and validation.

In a Covid-19 presser, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the age of those who died of Covid-19 is between 18 to 80 years old while 14 or 48 percent of the deaths are aged 60 years old and above.

“Kaya mariin po naming pinaaalalahanan ang aming mga elderlies, ang ating mga magulang, ang ating mga lolo at lola na lalong maging mas maingat ngayong panahon ng pandemiya (So, we strongly remind our elderlies, our parents, our grandparents to take care of themselves especially in this time of pandemic),” Vergeire said.

The DOH also noted that there are 38,183 active cases and about 90.7 percent of them are mild, 8.5 percent are asymptomatic, 0.4 percent are severe, and 0.5 percent are critical.

As of Thursday, a total of 984,313 individual tests were performed by the 63 licensed RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) laboratories and 22 licensed GeneXpert laboratories nationwide.

As of Wednesday, the DOH has 15,521 total bed capacity dedicated to patients with Covid-19.

Occupied are about 47.1 percent of 1,373 intensive care unit beds; 47 percent of 10,478 isolation beds; and 53.3 percent of 3,670 ward beds.

There are 1,928 total ventilators for Covid-19 patients with about 27.1 percent in use. (PNA)