PH logs 425 new COVID-19 cases amid low testing; active infections now below 16k-mark

MANILA, Philippines — Only 425 fresh cases of COVID-19 were reported by the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday, with 909 more recoveries, decreasing active cases to 15,800.

These new cases account for 2.1 percent of the 24,442 tests conducted — which is almost 10,000 lower than the tests conducted for Nov. 29’s results, which were at 32,629.

The latest daily count, however, is now the lowest number DOH has tallied in 2021 and marks the 7th consecutive day the country recorded cases less than 1,000.

This is also the lowest since July 2, 2020, where only 294 new cases were recorded.

With this, total confirmed infections now currently sit at 2,832,734 and total recoveries at 2,768,839.

Of the 15,800 individuals still afflicted with the deadly virus, 47.5 percent suffer mild cases, 5.3 percent asymptomatic, 24.42 percent moderate, 16 percent severe, and 6.8 percent critical.

The DOH also recorded 44 new deaths, increasing the death toll to 48,545.

Meanwhile, DOH said that two laboratories were not operational, while four labs were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on the tests conducted on Nov. 28. These six labs contribute, on average, 0.4 percent of samples tested and 0.4 percent of positive individuals.

The health agency also said that three duplicates were removed from the total case count — of which 2 were recoveries.

“In addition, 63 cases were found to have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count. These 63 are recoveries,” said the DOH.

“Moreover, 40 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” it added.

JPV