FILE – Healthworkers are attending persons for COVID-19 at the Santa Ana hospital in Manila. INQUIRER PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Only 1,591 new cases of COVID-19 infections were reported on Wednesday by the Department of Health (DOH), the lowest in almost nine months or since February 24.
In all, 29,489 tests were conducted by the DOH on November 1, which means that new cases accounted for 5.6 percent.
It is closer to the World Health Organization’s threshold of 5 percent below, which indicates controlled transmission.
With the new cases, the Philippines now has a total of 2,793,898 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The DOH also reported 4,294 daily recoveries, decreasing active COVID-19 cases to 38,014 from 40,786 on Tuesday, November 2.
The latest number of individuals still sick due to the new coronavirus was also the lowest the country has ever had in almost eight months or since March 7.
Total recoveries currently stand at 2,712,298.
Of the 43,185 active COVID-19 infections, 69.4 percent were mild cases, 5.2 percent were asymptomatic, 13.87 percent were moderate, 8.1 percent were severe, and 3.4 percent were at critical conditions, according to the health agency.
Deaths, meanwhile, increased to 43,586 as the DOH reported 186 new deaths due to the coronavirus.
The DOH, however, said seven laboratories that conducted tests on November 1 were not able to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System, noting that these labs contribute 1.3 percent of samples tested and 3.0 percent of positive individuals on average.
It also added that 349 duplicates were removed from the total case count, of which 330 are recoveries and 4 are deaths.
Furthermore, 132 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths.