Daily PH COVID tally hits new high: 22,820 cases

The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday logged 22,820 new COVID-19 infections, a new record high for a single-day tally, raising the total number of cases nationwide to 2,161,892. The previous highest daily count was recorded on Monday, with 22,415 new cases. Of the active cases now at 166,672, the majority or 87 percent are mild, 8.3 percent are asymptomatic, 2.6 percent are moderate, 1.4 percent are severe and 0.7 percent are critical. The DOH also recorded the highest positivity rate so far, with 29.4 percent of all tests coming back positive. This means that of the 74,706 tested on Tuesday, 21,963 were positive for COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier said an area needs to have a positivity rate of below 5 percent for the infection to be considered contained. Another 12,337 patients have recovered from the illness, which brings the total number of survivors to 1,960,497. However, 61 more patients died, for the latest death toll of 34,733. Another 29 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after validation. Due to a “technical issue,” Thursday’s case bulletin was released several hours behind the usual 4 p.m. posting. —PATRICIA DENISE M. CHIU