UNPRECEDENTED Workers are finding themselves busier than ever at New Life Crematorium in Biñan City in Laguna, where families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 have to wait for at least two days to secure a slot. —RICHARD A. REYES (file photo)
MANILA, Philippines — The total number of COVID-19 deaths in the country is now at 44,239 after 154 new fatalities were reported on Saturday, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
The total number of deaths accounts for 1.58 percent of all cases, according to the DOH.
The total number of cases is now at 2,800,621 after 2,656 cases were reported on Saturday.
Of the total number of cases, 1.2 percent or 34,866 were tagged as active cases with most having mild or no symptoms at 72.7 percent.
There are 5,130 new recoveries to bring the total number of recoveries to 2,721,516 or 97.2 percent of the cases.
According to the DOH, 21 duplicates were removed from the total case count including 20 recoveries.
“Moreover, 118 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” the DOH added.
The DOH added that the current positivity rate in the country is at 5.6 percent, which is now close to the ideal positivity rate of 5 percent set by the World Health Organization.
Meanwhile, the global infection now stands at 249 million including five million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Case Tracker.