The Philippines has reported a record 5032 daily coronavirus infections, pushing the country's total caseload to over 100,000, as medical frontliners warn the country is losing the battle against COVID-19.
The death toll also rose to 2059, following 20 additional deaths, the Department of Health said on Sunday.
Of the additional cases, 2114 were infections confirmed in the past three days, while 2918 were confirmed previously but only later added to the tally.
The country's total stood at 103,185 as of Sunday.
The spike in the number of infections has prompted doctors, nurses and other health care workers to call on the government to re-impose a lockdown in the capital of Manila.
In a letter to President Rodrigo Duterte, medical groups from all over the country called for a two-week lockdown amid government efforts to re-open the economy by easing restrictions.
Duterte was meeting with key cabinet members to discuss the appeal on Sunday, while members of an inter-agency task force on the coronavirus met with representatives of the medical groups on Saturday.
"We are waging a losing battle against Covid-19, and we need to draw up a consolidated, definitive plan of action," the medical workers said in the letter.
One of the doctors who joined the call for the two-week lockdown warned that if the infections are not halted, "We will be the next New York City, where people die in stretchers, in the emergency rooms or at home because the hospitals are full."
Australian Associated Press
