DOH: New COVID-19 cases hit 14,249; active cases near 100,000-mark

(FILE) The Swab Cab initiative of the Office of Vice President Leni Robredo returned to Imus, Cavite this weekend, July 10 to 11, 2021, offering free antigen testing in identified areas to help in local government efforts against COVID-19. Photo by Jay Ganzon / OVP

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines recorded 14,249 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, August 14, pushing the active case count to 98,847.

According to the Department of Health (DOH) COVID-19 bulletin, the current active case count represents 5.7 percent of the total confirmed cases in the country, which is 1,727,231.

There were also 11,714 recoveries recorded, pushing the total recovery count to 1,598,314.

The record-breaking numbers follow last Friday’s record-high count of 13,177 cases. The highest number ever recorded by DOH was 15,310 cases last April 2, but the department clarified back then that the figure included 3,709 backlogs.

Most of the patients or 95.9 percent of active cases still experience mild symptoms, while 1.0 percent remain asymptomatic. At least 1.4 percent of the patients currently have severe symptoms while 0.8 percent are in critical condition.

The DOH said of the 52,679 tests conducted from August 12, nearly one in four have tested positive or 24.9 percent.

In terms of COVID-19 bed capacity in the National Capital Region, 71 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds are now being used while 63 percent of isolation beds are occupied.

All over the country, 70 percent of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients are occupied, while 59 percent of isolation beds are being used.

The DOH said four laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System even if all laboratories were operational on August 12.

Based on the data from the last 14 days, the four laboratories that were not able to submit data accounted for 3.4 percent of all the samples tested, and 2.8 percent of all the positive cases.

There were also 320 duplicate entries removed from the total case count, of which 313 are recoveries and one was a deceased patient. Also, 14 cases previously classified as recovered patients were placed back to the active case count after validation.

The DOH added that  142 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths.

/MUF