DOH reports 12,805 new COVID-19 infections, low output of testing labs

FILE PHOTO: Persons identified for contact tracing in connection to COVID-19 patients undergo swabbing procedures inside UP-Philippine General Hospital, Manila. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) logged 12,805 additional cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, which brought the country’s active infections to 132,339.

But according to the DOH, the low number of new cases was due to lower laboratory output last Monday. It said the testing output last Monday was only 51,377 compared to the 70,134 average daily tests for the last seven days.

As for the latest tally of recovered patients, the health agency said 12,236 recoveries increased total COVID-19 survivors to 2,365,229 as of September 29, while the passing of 186 patients raised the death toll to 38,164.

The government said 2,535,732 individuals nationwide were hit by COVID-19 since the pandemic reached the country in the first quarter of 2020.

On positivity rate, the DOH said that 22.9 percent of the 51,327 people who were tested were found positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus on Monday. Only one testing laboratory was not able to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH further reported the removal of 38 duplicate entries, including 27 recoveries, from the total case count, while 120 cases that were previously counted as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

While the country registers lower fresh cases in the past days compared to the over 20,000 daily infections logged in the recent weeks, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they could not accurately declare yet that cases are indeed decreasing because healthcare utilization has remained high and considering that COVID-19 testing has declined.

KGA