DOH adds 61 fatalities to COVID-19 death toll; 9 recorded in December

FILE PHOTO: Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/Handout via REUTERS.

MANILA, Philippines — An additional 61 deaths were added to the country’s total death count on Monday, increasing the death toll to 50,341, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Nine of these deaths were recorded in the current month of December, said the DOH.

The rest of the deaths were recorded in past months–specifically 26 were recorded in November; 23 in October; and three in September.

In its latest case bulletin, the DOH explained that the delays were still due to the “late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya.”

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

The updated death toll, meanwhile, still accounts for 1.77 percent of the total 2,836,803 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country since the virus first hit the country in 2020.

Active infections decreased to 11,083 after the number of recovered patients increased to 2,775,379 with 519 new recoveries.

The Philippines’ coronavirus positivity rate also remains at 1.1 percent, the lowest rate the country has recorded since going below the World Health Organization’s threshold of 5 percent — which indicates controlled transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus — on November 10.

The DOH also recorded a relatively low health care utilization rate nationwide with only 23 percent of ICU beds, 24 percent of isolation beds, 12 percent of ward beds, and 12 percent of ventilators currently in use.

The same goes for Metro Manila specifically, where occupied ICU beds are currently at 25 percent, isolation beds at 19 percent, ward beds at 18 percent and 15 percent for ventilators.

Worldwide deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker, currently number 5,306,102, while infections are at 270,164,158.

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