PH logs 1,297 new COVID-19 infections; active cases down to 23,158

A healthcare worker conducts a swab test on a woman in Imus, Cavite. Image from OVP

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) logged 1,297 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday with 1,956 additional recoveries, slightly bringing down active cases to 23,158.

With the new recorded cases and recoveries, the DOH said the country now has 2,821,753 confirmed infections of COVID-19 and 2,752,173 total recoveries.

Meanwhile, The positivity rate is at 3.4 of the 42,043 individuals tested — still below 5 percent which indicates a controlled transmission of the virus, according to the World Health Organization.

On the other hand, of the 23,185 patients currently afflicted with the deadly virus, 58.5 percent have mild cases, 4.1 percent are asymptomatic, 19.96 percent are moderate, 12.2 percent are severe, and 5.2 percent are critical.

The DOH also recorded 305 new deaths, bringing the country’s death toll to 46,442.

Amid the low numbers, however, the DOH said four laboratories were not able to submit their data in the total tests conducted on November 16. These laboratories contribute, on average, 0.8 percent of samples tested and 0.3 percent of positive individuals.

The health agency added that 38 duplicates were removed from the total case count — of which 36 were recoveries.

“Moreover, 278 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” it added.

/MUF