DOH reports 1,894 more COVID-19 cases; slightly high positivity rate at 5.5%

COVID-19 test_positive. STOCK PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Friday the coronavirus infection of an additional 1,894 individuals in the country as well as a slightly higher positivity rate of 5.5 percent from the previous 4.9 percent.

The fresh infections boosted active cases to 29,105 as of November 12. Of the. current active cases, the DOH said 63 percent were mild, 5.7 percent were asymptomatic, 16.70 percent were moderate, 10.2 percent were severe, and 4.4 percent were critical.

Also on Friday, the DOH reported that 1,421 more patients have survived the disease while 170 others died.

To date, confirmed COVID-19 cases across the country is at 2,813,115, including 2,738,975 recovered patients and 45,035 deaths.

According to the health agency, 39 percent of intensive care unit beds, 30 percent of isolation beds, 23 percent of ward beds, and 22 percent of ventilators for coronavirus-stricken persons were in use as of its latest COVID-19 data reporting.

The DOH also disclosed a positivity rate of 5.5 percent among 43,591 individuals tested for the new coronavirus, after recording only a four percent positivity rate in the last two days. The 5.5 positivity rate is marginally higher than the 5 percent benchmark that the World Health Organization recommends.

Positivity rate is the percentage of tests that turned out positive for SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, based on the total number of people tested at a given time.

Only two testing laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on time, according to the agency’s latest data, which likewise noted the removal of 27 duplicates from the total case count and reclassification of 145 recoveries as deaths after the final validation.

KGA