DOH reports only 849 new COVID-19 cases due to low testing output

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) logged only 849 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday but noted that the lower number of additional coronavirus infections is “largely” due to the low number of tests conducted.

According to DOH, only 3.2 percent of 28,128 individuals tested were found positive for coronavirus on Sunday. This number of tests conducted is the second to the lowest following the 29,375 tests on July 11.

“The 849 new cases reported today is largely due to the weekly dip of testing output due to weekend encoding of positive cases to CDRS. Last Sunday showed the lowest testing output this week,” the DOH said in the caption of its case bulletin.

Tuesday was the first time that the country logged less than 1,000 new cases again since January this year.

Based on the case bulletin of the DOH, the 849 new cases, 2,393 new recoveries, and 99 additional fatalities brought the currently active cases of the disease to just 25,464.

Of the active cases, 59.1 percent are mild, 5.9 percent are asymptomatic,  and 18.61 percent are moderate, 11.5 percent are severe, and 4.9 percent are critical.

With the additional figures reported by DOH, the number of patients who have recovered from the disease is now 2,748,069, while the total number of deaths is 45,808.

At present, there are already 2,819,341 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.

Six laboratories were not able to submit their data on time, according to DOH. The six labs contributed an average of 0.8 percent of tested samples and 0.7 percent of positive individuals in the last 14 days.

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