PH logs 18,449 new COVID-19 cases; total infections reach 2.5M

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday reported another 18,449 individuals who contracted COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections to 2,509,177.

The new cases account for 23.5 percent of 68,678 individuals tested.

A higher number of recoveries, on the other hand, were recorded by the DOH at 21,8111 increasing total recoveries to 2,313,412.

This puts all active COVID-19 infections at 158,169 nationwide, which currently accounts for 6.3 percent of the total number of infections.

The health agency also reported only 93 new deaths despite three days of not being able to report any additional casualties due to a technical glitch.

“The DOH will report backlog deaths in separate advisories,” it said in the latest bulletin.

With this, the total death toll is currently at 37,494.

According to DOH, the top regions with the highest cases in the recent two weeks were Metro Manila, with 3,060 cases; Region 4-A, 2,465 cases; and Region 3, with 1,922 cases.

Of the total patients currently afflicted with the serious respiratory illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, 78.7percent are suffering mild cases, 15.3 percent are asymptomatic, 3.42 percent moderate, 1.7 percent severe, and 0.8 percent critical.

Meanwhile, two laboratories were not able to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System in the total tests conducted on September 25, the DOH said. These two labs contribute, on average, 0.07 percent of samples tested and 0.04percent of positive individuals.

The health agency also noted that 130 duplicates were removed from the total case count, of which 61 are recoveries and 4 are deaths.

“Moreover, 227 cases previously tagged as recoveries have been validated to be active cases and 117 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” the DOH said.

The DOH also reported that 75 percent of ICU beds, 64 percent of isolation beds, 68 percent of ward beds, and 54 percent of ventilators are currently in use across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Metro Manila, meanwhile, occupied ICU beds are currently at 77 percent, isolation beds at 55 percent, ward beds at 65 percent while 58 percent of available ventilators were also being used in the region, said DOH.

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