PH logs 18,056 new COVID-19 cases

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Tuesday 18,056 new COVID-19 cases, a lower figure than the over 20,000 additional infections being recorded in the previous weeks due to lower testing laboratory output on Sunday.

The new cases brought the country’s total active cases to 177,670, or 7.8 percent of the 2,266,066 total confirmed cases of the disease, according to DOH.

Of the active cases, 85.8 percent are mild, 9.5 percent are asymptomatic, 2.66 percent are moderate, 1.4 percent are severe, and 0.6 percent are critical.

Meanwhile, the DOH also recorded 20,542 additional recoveries, raising the number of patients who have recovered from the disease to 2,052,867. There were also 222 more patients who have died, taking the death count to 35,529, or 1.57 percent of the tally.

According to DOH, 29.7 percent of 50,425 people who were tested were found positive for coronavirus on Sunday.

All laboratories were operational on Sunday but 12 were not able to submit their data on time. The 12 non-reporting labs contributed 1.7 percent of samples tested and 1.7 percent of positive individuals in the last 14 days.

The DOH also removed 61 duplicates, including 54 recoveries, from the total case count. Ninety-two cases that were initially tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

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