PH’s active COVID-19 cases dip below 50,000 with 4,353 new cases

Health workers in Ilocos Norte continue to conduct aggressive contact tracing and swabbing amid the surge in COVID-19 cases. (Photo courtesy of Ilocos Norte provincial government)

MANILA, Philippines — The country now has less than 50,000 active COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday even as the Department of Health (DOH) reports 4,353 new coronavirus infections.

According to the DOH, the 49,862 active cases represent only 3.6 percent of all the 1,372,232 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country. Of the active cases, 94.6 percent are mild or asymptomatic.

Of the total, 1,298,442 are recoveries, including 7,139 patients who have recently recovered from the disease. Recoveries represent 94.6 of all the cases.

Meanwhile, 119 more people have died of COVID-19, raising the death count to 23,928, or 1.74 percent of the tally.

The DOH said 11.4 percent of the 33,413 people who were tested were also found positive for coronavirus on Monday.

The health agency added that 15 duplicates, including 12 recoveries, were removed from the total case count, while 74 cases initially tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

All laboratories were operational on Monday while six laboratories were not able to submit their data. The DOH said that based on data in the last 14 days, the six non-reporting labs contribute, on average, 3.2 percent of samples tested and 4.5 percent of COVID-19 positive individuals.

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