Coronavirus cases in the Philippines climbed further to nearly 130,000 on Sunday, August 9, with 3,109 new cases added to the tally.

This brings the country’s total confirmed COVID-19 cases to 129,913, the Department of Health (DOH) reported.

The number of new cases remained above 3,000 for the 5th day, since the current one-day record of 6,352 new cases was set last Tuesday, August 4.

Among the new cases on Sunday, 1,700 were from Metro Manila, 169 from Laguna, 114 from Cebu, 98 from Rizal, and 93 from Cavite. (READ: Why are coronavirus cases still increasing in the Philippines?)

The country’s COVID-19 death toll also went up to 2,270, after 61 cases were added to the tally.

Among the new fatalities, 36 were from Central Visayas, 16 from Metro Manila, 3 from Ilocos, two each from Calabarzon and the Zamboanga Peninsula, and one each from Western Visayas and Eastern Visayas. 

In addition, 17 of the 61 deaths happened in August, 34 in July, 6 in June, and 4 in May.

Meanwhile, 654 new recoveries brought the total number of those who healed from the disease to 67,673.

This results in 59,970 active COVID-19 cases in the country.

The DOH also reported that 81 duplicates were removed from the total case count, as part of the cleaning and validation process. Among these are 78 recovered cases from previous reports. 

The department also said 20 cases previously reported as recoveries were validated to have died.

Elsewhere, Aklan recorded its first virus death, after a 48-year-old woman from Numancia town died from complications of COVID-19. The DOH said the patient died on Friday, August 7, 3 days after her swab test was conducted.

The government said it is currently implementing the 2nd phase of its National Action Plan (NAP) against COVID-19.

Part of this is scaling up healthcare capacity “by establishing more ICU and isolation beds, testing laboratories, referral hospitals, swabbing centers, and quarantine facilities throughout the country,” said Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr, the policy’s chief implementer, in a statement on Sunday.

He added that the government will make sure that public and private health frontliners “are protected and are able to receive all the benefits and support they need, as we establish the conditions where people can safely go to work and businesses can resume their operations.”

Around 10,000 more healthcare workers will be hired, continued Galvez, “to ensure that our doctors and nurses are rested, motivated, and rejuvenated to face this long-drawn battle against COVID-19.”

Also under the 2nd phase, targeted lockdowns will remain while the economy is slowly rebuilt.

“We will also continue to strictly implement health and safety standards across all quarantine classifications, as well as further increase our testing capacity and contact tracing capability especially in high-risk communities, and consequently, curb the spread and mitigate the impact of the disease by effective isolation, quarantine, and treatment of COVID-19 cases,” Galvez said. – with a report from Boy Ryan Zabal/Rappler.com