DOH logs 1,974 new COVID-19 cases; positivity rate still below benchmark

(FILE) NECESSARY DISCOMFORT A man grimaces as he undergoes nose swabbing for a COVID-19 test in Tondo, Manila. In Western Visayas, health officials have warned about fake documents showing negative test results as employers start requiring workers to present health clearances before they return to their workplaces. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s active COVID-19 cases continue to drop as the Department of Health (DOH) reports only 1,974 new cases of the infectious disease on Thursday, with the positivity rate still below the 5 percent benchmark.

According to the DOH, there are now 28,660 active COVID-19 cases, even lower than the 29,138 cases reported on Wednesday. Of the active cases, 62.1 percent are mild, 5.9 percent are asymptomatic, 17.15 percent are moderate, 10.4 percent are severe, and 4.4 percent are critical.

Overall, the health department has so far confirmed 2,811,248 COVID-19 infections in the country.

In addition to more patients, the DOH said another 2,388 patients have recovered from the disease. However, another 142 patients have died of the disease.

Active cases make up one percent of the tally, while recoveries and deaths represent 97.4 and 1.60 percent of the total.

The DOH said 4.9 percent of 43,357 individuals tested were found positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday. The positivity rate is still within the five-percent benchmark of the World Health Organization. On Wednesday, the reported positivity rate was at 4.3.

On hospitalization, 41 percent of intensive care unit beds, 32 percent of isolation beds, and 23 percent of ward beds and ventilators are currently being occupied, according to DOH.

Only two testing laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on time. The non-reporting laboratories contributed an average of 0.4 percent of tested samples and 0.3 percent of positive individuals in the last 14 days.

The DOH removed 37 duplicate entries from the total case count and reclassified 104 recoveries as deaths after final validation.

/MUF