MANILA (Xinhua): The number of Covid-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 76,444 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,103 new cases on Friday (July 24).
The DOH said that the number of recoveries further rose to 24,502 after 144 more patients have survived the disease.
The death toll also increased to 1,879 after 15 more patients succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH added.
Most of the cases were recorded in the capital city of Manila and Cebu province in central Philippines. Manila alone reported 1,272 new cases on Friday.
The DOH said that 91 laboratories have been set up across the country that are capable of conducting Covid-19 tests, with around 1.2 million people having been tested since the outbreak.
From 300 daily tests in March, the DOH said it can now conduct 24,000 tests daily. At the end of this month, the DOH said its target is to reach 1.5 million people.
According to the DOH, the country's test positivity rate or the percentage of people who have positive results has gone down almost 10 per cent from 22.2 per cent on April 30 to 12.6 per cent in July 20.
The government aims to test 10 million people or about a tenth of the population by 2021.
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