Highest record: PH posts 17,231 new COVID-19 cases; active infections leap above 120,000

Test tube of the sample, positive for new coronavirus. File Photo

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has registered its highest-ever daily count of 17,231 new COVID-19 cases, propelling active infections beyond 120,000 and total confirmed cases past the 1.8 million mark.

According to the Department of Health (DOH), the number of individuals sick of COVID-19 right now is at 123,251 – 6.8 percent of the 1,807,800 coronavirus infections recorded in the country since 2020.

The health agency also reported a staggering 26.1 positivity rate from the 64,934 tests conducted since August 18.

Most of the currently active COVID-19 cases or 94.1 percent have mild symptoms, while 3.2 percent remained asymptomatic. On the other hand, at least 1.2 percent of the active cases have severe symptoms while 0.7 percent are critical.

The DOH also said that only 5,595 patients have recovered from the disease recently, increasing total recoveries to 1,653,351, while  317 others died, driving the death toll to 31, 198.

Regarding COVID-19 bed capacity in the National Capital Region, the health department said 74 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds are being utilized while 61 percent of isolation beds are occupied.

Across the country, 73 percent of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients are occupied while 61 percent of isolation beds are used.

Despite the high COVID-19 count, the DOH said two laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System even if all laboratories were operational last August 18.

Based on the data from the last 14 days, the two laboratories that were not able to submit data accounted for 0.03 percent of all the samples tested, and 0.08 percent of all the positive cases.

There were also 434 duplicate entries removed from the total case count, according to the DOH. Of the 434 duplicates, 424 are recoveries, while one is a death case. Also, a patient previously classified as recovered was placed back to the active case count after validation.

There were also 221 cases previously tagged as recoveries that are now reclassified as deaths, the DOH added.

KGA