113 new deaths bring total to 49,499 – DOH

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported Monday that 113 more deaths increased the country’s death toll to 49,499.

“Of the 113 reported deaths, only 14 occurred in December 2021 [and] 21 percent of the reported deaths today occurred in November 2021 due to late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya,” the DOH said in its case bulletin.

“This issue is currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date,” it added.

Meanwhile, the current death toll accounts for 1.75 percent of the total 2,835,154 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country since the virus first hit the country’s shores last year.

On the other hand, active infections decreased further to 13,548 after the number of recovered patients increased to 2,772,107 with 830 new recoveries.

The Philippines’ coronavirus positivity rate also remains at 1.7 percent, still below the World Health Organization’s threshold of 5 percent — which indicates controlled transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus — on November 10.

According to the DOH, a relatively low health care utilization rate also continues to be recorded nationwide, with only 26 percent of ICU beds, 25 percent of isolation beds, 14 percent of ward beds, and 14 percent of ventilators currently in use.

Meanwhile, in Metro Manila specifically, occupied ICU beds are currently at 29 percent, isolation beds at 22 percent, ward beds at 20 percent and 17 percent for ventilators.

According to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker, worldwide deaths are currently number 5,256,038, while infections are at 265,871,477.