DOH reports 4,437 new COVID-19 cases; total active cases now 57,736

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Tuesday 4,437 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total active coronavirus cases in the country to 57,736.

There were also 116 patients who have recovered, pushing the number of patients who have survived the disease to 560,736.

Meanwhile, 11 additional people have died. The COVID-19 death toll is now at 12,848.

A total of 631,320 COVID-19 cases have so far been recorded in the country.

According to DOH, active cases represent 9.1 percent of the total count, while recoveries and deaths compose 88.8 and 2.04 percent of the tally, respectively.

Of the active cases, 96.6 percent are either mild or asymptomatic.

The DOH said 10 duplicate entries, including three recoveries, were removed from the total case count, while four cases that were previously reported as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Seven laboratories were not able to submit their results to COVID-19 Document Repository System on Monday.

On hospital capacity, the health department said 53 percent of intensive care unit beds, 61 percent of isolation beds, 69 percent of ward beds, and 73 percent of ventilators are still available.

The DOH began reporting over 3,000 new cases of COVID-19 again on March 5. The highest additional cases so far this year was logged on March 15 when the DOH reported 5,404 new infections. 

While the country detected cases of the more transmissible COVID-19 variants from the United Kingdom and South Africa and “mutations of possible clinical significance,” the DOH said the increase in cases is “not solely” because of the variants but also due to the public’s failure to follow health protocols against the spread of the virus.

The OCTA Research, which monitors the trends of COVID-19 in the Philippines, earlier warned that daily coronavirus cases in the country may hit 10,000 to 11,000 by the end of March considering the current reproduction number of COVID-19 cases.

Dr. Guido David of the research group said that the coronavirus reproduction number is now at 2.03, which means a COVID-19 positive patient can potentially infect another two individuals.

JE