16,989 new COVID-19 infections bring total active cases to 170,446

EXTRA HOURS A health worker updates the bulletin at the emergency room of Ospital ng Muntinlupa in Muntinlupa City as it exceeds its bed capacity on Aug 15, 2021. Doctors, nurses and other medical front-liners work extra hours amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country. — RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — Health authorities reported 16,989 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, a lower figure attributed to lower output in testing laboratories last Monday.

The country now has 170,446 patients still battling COVID-19, or those tagged as active cases, based on the latest bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH).

There are already 2,283,011 confirmed cases of the disease in the country since the pandemic started. Of this number, 2,076,823 have already recovered. This includes the 24,123 additional patients who have survived the disease.

Meanwhile, 214 more patients have died, raising the count of fatalities to 35,742, which represents 1.57 percent of all the cases.

The DOH said 25.9 percent of 57,034 people who were tested were found positive for the virus on Monday.

All testing laboratories were operational on Monday but four were not able to submit their data on time. The four laboratories contributed, 1.1 percent of samples tested and 1.0 percent of positive individuals in the last 14 days.

The DOH also removed 44 duplicates, including 32 recoveries and one death. A total of 135 cases that were initially tagged as recoveries were likewise reclassified as deaths after final validation.

The country, currently battling a surge of infections due to the Delta variant, logged its highest single-daily increase of COVID-19 cases on Saturday with 26,303 new infections.

EDV