The Department of Health (DOH) Thursday reported record highs in new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases and recoveries.

The DOH reported 3,954 new COVID-19 cases, surpassing 2,539 on July 8. The DOH said the National Capital Region accounted for majority of the new cases with 1,703 followed by Cebu 958, Laguna 177, Rizal 90 and Cavite 87.

Total number of COVID-19 cases are 89,374, of which 22, 327 are active. Out of the active cases, 88 percent are mild, 9.6 percent asymptomatic, 1.4 percent severe and 1 percent,

There were 38,075 new recoveries, eclipsing the previous 4,325 new recoveries reported last July 13. This raised total recoveries to 65, 064.

Twenty-three persons died from COVID-19, bringing total deaths to 1,983 fatalities due to COVID-19.

The DOH said new record highs in new cases and recoveries were due to data reconciliation efforts with local government units (LGUs).

"These massive data reconciliation efforts have resulted in faster and more accurate tagging of health statuses," said the DOH.

DOH said the newly-formed "Oplan Recovery" is responsible in tagging 37,166 of the new recoveries.

The other 909 validated recoveries were reports from regional epidemiological surveillance units.

DOH said high recovery figures was due to amended classification of recovered COVID-19 patients.

It said this follows guidelines provided under DOH Department Memorandum No 2020-0258 as well as clinical protocols in the US CDC (Center for Disease Control), European CDC ( Center for Disease Control), and India.

"Following clinical practice guidelines and our technical advisory groups, patients with mild or no symptoms are tagged as recovered 14 days from the date of onset of symptoms or by date specimen collection," notes the DOH.

"Upon assessment of a licensed physician, the patient can be tagged as recovered after completion of the 14-day isolation period," it said.

The DOH previously required COVID-19 patients to test negative of COVID-19 twice before they are considered recovered. DMS